Sfecft 



UNITE! 



AMERICA. 



THE TKUTH 



AND 



THE WITNESSES 

on 

GEMS FROM OWEN, LEIGHTON, 
JANE WAY, AND OTHERS. 



/ 
IContron : 

JOHN WESLEY AND CO. 
1854. 



ORIGINAL PREFACE, 



When I consider the sad and deplorable 
decay of vital, heart religion among profes- 
sors of this day, with that conformity to the 
evil, sinful customs of the world which is 
found among us ; I think it may be ascribed, 
among other causes, to that dreadful apos- 
tacy from those fundamental doctrines of 
the gospel which are the glory of the 
Christian religion, and for which our fore- 
fathers suffered the severest persecution, 
even to death. But alas ! how is the gold 
become dim ! how is the fine gold changed ! 
A generation is risen up who have forsaken 
the God of their fathers, and the everlasting 
truths ot the gospel ; those doctrines which 



ORIGINAL PREFACE. 



tend to debase the creature, and to exalt 
the rich, free, sovereign grace of God ; and 
in the room thereof have substituted those 
which tend only to exalt the vain-glorious 
pride of sinful depraved man ; and to 
ascribe unto him such a power and free- 
dom of will as was never yet found in any 
mere man since Adam. And what is the 
consequence? We plainly see it in the 
decay of vital religion in the lives of such 
persons as have forsaken the good old doc- 
trines. And it remains an incontestable 
truth, that wherever the doctrines of the 
gospel are forsaken, the power of religion 
will decline. Woeful experience may con- 
vince us of it in the day wherein we live. 

Wherefore, I judged it not altogether a 
useless design to transcribe some passages 
which I have, in my course of many years 
reading, collected from the writings of 
sundry eminent divines and others, chiefly 
of the last century, some earlier ; wherein 



ORIGINAL PREFACE. 



V 



we may see the judgment and sentiments 
of those pious and learned divines concern- 
ing the important doctrines of the gospel, 
now almost lost among us. They shew also 
what an excellent harmony there is in 
divine truths in the minds and experience 
of so many different persons, and at dif- 
ferent times, and in different places, as 
proceeding all from the divine teachings of 
the same holy and blessed Spirit. 

God raised up and spirited those excellent 
persons with abilities and courage to declare 
and defend the truth, notwithstanding all 
opposition ; not being influenced with the 
fear of men, which bringeth a snare ; but 
being under an awful impression of the 
words of the "apostle, (1 Cor. ix. 16.) 'Woe 
is me if I preach not the gospel.' 

My first view, in my labour herein, was 
for my own private use ; afterwards I 
thought they might be of use to my own 
family ; and then, upon frequent perusal of 



V] 



ORIGINAL PREFACE. 



them, they appeared to me so excellent, so 
strong and striking, that I could not but 
judge they might be acceptable and useful 
to those very few of my Christian friends 
and acquaintance into whose hands they 
might come, and in whose hearts are the 
ways of them ; from many of whom, minis- 
ters as well as private Christians, I have 
received thanks, and acknowledgment of 
their usefulness. 

My design herein was chiefly for such 
persons who have but little inclination or 
leisure to read much. To such they may 
be as a little body of divinity. And I 
therefore formed the book into this port- 
able size, which may be very well carried 
in the pocket ; whereby persons may have 
frequent opportunities of dipping into them 
upon every leisure opportunity, and reading 
a passage or two, more or less, there being 
no necessary connection between them. 

The scriptures which are subjoined to 



ORIGINAL PREFACE. 



Yll 



these passages, are such, as for the most 
part occurred to my thoughts in transcrib- 
ing ; whether the most pertinent I shall 
not say : perhaps, some readers may think 
of some others more so. 

That He that ministereth seed to the 
sower may command a blessing upon them 
to the souls of the readers, is the earnest 
prayer of the transcriber, 

Thomas Stratton, 



Ponder s End, 
March 12^, 1761, 



PREFACE, 



The little work now offered to the public, will be 
found to contain (as its title imports) a collection 
of very valuable remarks on all the great truths of 
Christianity. It is not the production of a single 
mind, but comprises portions from the works of 
many. It is, indeed, a record of the views and 
experience of several of the most distinguished 
Divines of the seventeenth century, and is valuable 
in part for the testimony it gives, of so many ex- 
cellent men, to the most important truths of the 
Gospel. 

The evil complained of in the original preface, 
(namely, " a decay of vital, heart-religion") it is 
feared, prevails even now ; — and although many 
other things might be named as contributing to it, 
the writer stated, it is presumed, its chief cause, 



X 



PREFACE. 



when he said, " I think it may be ascribed to that 
dreadful apostacy from those fundamental doc- 
trines of the Gospel, which are the glory of the 
Christian religion/' The charge may appear too 
severe for the present day : but although in words 
these doctrines have, perhaps, never been more 
strenuously contended for ; — in heart and in life 
they are lamentably abandoned. The repeated 
statement of those doctrines in terms plain and 
forcible, is calculated to remove the evil, and 
accordingly there are none who can read this book 
with the attention it deserves, without discovering 
their practical bearing, and resolving to live as 
they direct. 

As a companion to the closet, and an aid to de- 
votion, the Christian may find it very useful. 
Every topic comprised within the whole range of 
doctrinal, practical, and experimental religion, is 
here stated and illustrated in a clear and forcible 
manner. Whatever, therefore, may be the pecu- 
liarity of his spiritual condition in the season of 
retirement, he will find something in it to assist 
and guide the pious exercises of the soul.. It may 
also be mentioned as a great recommendation of 



PREFACE. 



xi 



the work, that nearly every article closes with a 
reference to a portion of scripture. 

Those who are aware that the state of the mind 
throughout the day is often determined by a single 
event happening in the morning, or by a few 
sentences read, or heard from the lips of others, 
will, with much benefit, make this a text-book. 
The subjects brought together are the most profit- 
able that can ever engage the attention of the 
immortal mind, and should, therefore, be daily 
studied : and if a portion of this volume be read 
in the morning, it will direct the thoughts, and 
give them a happy tendency throughout the day. 
The subjects themselves, are arranged under suit- 
able heads, that the reader may the more readily 
find that which may appear most desirable. 

September, 1839. 



CONTEXTS, 



CHAPTER I. 

On Sin ..... 

CHAPTER II. 
The Ioy e of God in Christ, 

CHAPTER HI. 

Salvation by Grace 

CHAPTER IV. 

Faith in Christ 

CHAPTER V. 
Justification by Christ ... 

CHAPTER VI. 
Divinity and Glory of Christ 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Preciousness of Christ 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Love to Christ 

CHAPTER IX. 

Likeness to Christ 



xiv CONTENTS, 
CHAPTER X. 

Holiness 

CHAPTER XL 
Humility .... 

CHAPTER XII. 
Work of the Holy Spirit 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Experience .... 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Prayer ..... 

CHAPTER XV. 
Affliction .... 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Christian Perseverance . 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Sinners encouraged to apply to Christ 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Love of the World 

CHAPTER XIX. 

God the only portion of the soul 

CHAPTER XX. 

Gratitude 



Miscellanies 



NAMES OF AUTHORS QUOTED, 



Ambrose. 


Da YEN ANT , 


Augustine. 


Dorney. 


Bain. 


Flayel. 


Barrow. 


Fleming . 


Bastingius. 


Firm in. 


Bengelius. 


Cesner, S. 


Bernard. 


Glassius. 


Beverly. 


Glascock. 


Boston. 


Goodwin. 


Bridge. 


Hall, Bishop 


Brooks. 


Hall, J. 


Bl'NYAN . 


Halyburton. 


Burgess. 


Heryey. 


Charnock. 


Horne. 


Chenelles. 


Howe. 


Clark son. 


Howels. 


Cole, T. 


Jane way. 


Cole, E. 


Jenks. 


Cyprian. 


Lyford. 



XVI 



NAMES OF AUTHORS CONTINUED. 



Leighton, Arch bp 

Luther. 

Marshal. 

Mason. 

Mather, C. 

Mather, S. 

Mc. Laurin, 

Mead. 

Navatian. 

Owen. 

Pascal. 

Preston. 



Rutherford. 
Reynolds. 

ROMAINE. 
SlBBS. 

Shaw. 
Saurin. 

SCOUGAL. 

Staupicius. 

Trail. 

Taylor. 

Witsius. 



SELECT SENTENCES 

jfvom eminent Ditunes Sre. 



CHAPTER I. 

OX SIX. 

Adam, turning aside from that straight line pre- 
scribed to him, lost, for himself and ail his 
posterity, that beauty of the image of God after 
which he was created ; and, while by an impassa- 
ble way he affected a forbidden equality with the 
Deity, was made most like to the devil, and, like 
that malignant spirit, by his own evil act deformed 
himself, than which, nothing more horrid or filthy 
can be conceived. The soul of a sinner is an 
horrible monster, without form and without light ; 
nothing there but mere darkness, mere confusion; 
all things torn and thrown down, nothing rightly 

B 



2 



ON SIN. 



placed ; first things take the place of last, and 
lowest things of highest. If any one could have 
a clear view of himself according to his inward 
disposition, in an undeceiving glass, he would fly 
from himself as from the most frightful apparition, 
with the utmost horror. And indeed, if holiness 
be the most beautiful ornament of the divine per- 
fections, that must needs be most filthy which is 
not only most unlike to that beauty, but is diame- 
trically opposite thereunto. This is that filthiness 
and superfluity of naughtiness mentioned by (James 
i. 21.) by which it comes to pass that man is 
abominable to God, who cannot but turn away 
the glorious eyes of his most pure holiness from, 
him. Job xxv. 4. Psalm xlv. 7. Witsius. 

If there were no enemy in the world, nor devil 
in hell, we carry that within us, that, if let loose, 
will trouble us more than all the world beside. 
Rom. vii. 24. Siebs. 

Labour to keep out sin, and then let come what 
ill come. Gen. xxxix. 9. Dan. hi. 16 — 18. 

Ibid. 

So far as any are under the power of sin, they 
•e under the power of madness. Eccles. ix. 3. 

Owen. 



OX SIX. 



3 



For a sinner out of hell not to rest in the will 
of God, nor to humble himself under his mighty 
hand, is to make himself guilty of the especial sin 
of hell. Jer. xviii. 6. Rom. is. 20. Ibid. 

Unreasonable fears are the sins of our hearts as 
truly as they are thorns in our sides ; they grieve 
the Holy Spirit. Tsa. xlis. 14. Burgess. 

Sin may entangle the mind and disorder the 
affections, and yet not be prevalent; but when it 
hath laid hold on the will it hath the mastery. 
James i. 14, 15. Owex. 

He that hath tasted the bitterness of sin will 
fear to commit it, and he that hath felt the sweet- 
ness of mercy will fear to offend it. Rom. vi. 
1,2. 2 Cor. v. 14. Charnock. 

The guilt of one sin is a greater misery than 
the burden of a thousand crosses. Heb. si. 25. 

Ibid. 

One leak will sink a ship, and one sin will 
destroy a sinner. Gen. ii. 17. Ezek. sviii. 4. 
James ii. 10. Bunyan. 

If there were no other argument for the 
corruption of our nature, the cold and indifferent 
way that we praise God for Christ is a demonstra- 
tion of it. Isa. liii. 1. Mc Laurix. 



4 



ON SIN. 



He is no true believer to whom sin is not the 
greatest burden, sorrow, and trouble. Rom. vii. 24. 

Owen. 

It is not perhaps so heinous an idolatry to set 
up a graven image, a senseless and a sinless stock 
or stone, as for a man to set up his own sinful, 
corrupt affections, and devote himself to a com- 
pliance with them in opposition to the righteous 
will of God. Jer. xliv. 16, 17, 28. Charnock. 

Sin not only debaseth the soul, but defiles it 
also ; and indeed there is nothing else that can 
defile it, (Mat. xv. 20.) For the soul is a most 
pure beam, bearing the image of the Father of 
lights ; as far surpassing the sun in pureness as 
the sun doth a clod of earth ; and yet all the dirt 
in the world cannot defile the sun ; all the clouds 
that seek to muffle it, it scatters them all : but sin 
hath defiled the soul ; yea, one sin, the least, 
defiles it in an instant, totally, eternally. Eccles. 
vii. 25. Psalm li. 5. 1 John hi. 8. Goodwin. 

The Son of God bearing the punishment of the 
sins of the elect and believers in our nature, 
declares the sinfulness of sin more than the tor- 
ments of hell will, where wicked men and angels 
shall suffer the punishment of their own sins to 



ON SIN. 



5 



all eternity. And sinners going to Christ for 
justification, sanctification, and salvation, by his 
righteousness and Spirit, includes an acknowledg- 
ment. First, that they deserve damnation ; 
second, that of all creatures, except devils, they 
are farthest from the kingdom of heaven. Luke 
xv. 18, 19, 21. Glascock. 

There is no greater discovery of the deprava- 
tion of our natures by sin, and degeneracy of our 
wills from their original rectitude, than that, 
whereas we are so prone to the love of other 
things, and therein do seek for satisfaction to our 
souls, where it is not to be obtained, it is so hard 
and difficult to raise our souls unto the love of 
God. Were it not for that depravation, He 
would always appear as the only suitable and 
satisfactory object unto our souls and affections. 
Psalm xvi. 11. 2 Tim. iii. 4. Jer. ii. 25. 

Owen. 

An attentive consideration of the Lord Jesus is 
a most powerful means of sanctification. No 
where doth it more clearly appear what a vile, 
filthy thing sin is, than in the lowness, emptyings, 
and sufferings of Christ. What clothed the Lord 
of glory with the contemptible form of a servant ? 



6 



ON SIN. 



What pressed the magnanimous Lion of the tribe 
of Judah with such great horrors and griefs, as 
that under them He well-nigh fainted ? What 
stirred up the cruel forces of hell against Him ? 
What turned the affluence of divine consolations 
into most doleful drought ? What mingled those 
most bitter bitternesses in the cup of divine wrath, 
with which the beloved Son of God was well-nigh 
exanimated ? Certainly sin was the cause of all 
these, (Isa. liii. 5.) Will not he who thinks of this 
burn with irreconcileable hatred thereof? Will 
he not endeavour to take revenge on such an out- 
rageous monster, which so cruelly afflicted his 
dearest Lord ; and which, unless it had been first 
slain, would have raged with the same cruelty 
against all those by whom it is so kindly received ? 
Will any, who seriously considers and believes 
this, ever bring his mind to give up himself again 
a slave to that tyrant, from whose chains, glowing 
with the fire of hell, he could never have been 
delivered but by the cursed death of the Son of 
God ? Thus the meditation of the sufferings of 
Christ maketh us, that, being dead to sin, we 
should live unto righteousness. 1 Peter ii. 24. 

WlTSIUS. 



ON SIN. 



7 



Sin hath a life, and that such a life as whereby 
it not only lives, but rules and reigns in all who 
are not born of God. By the entrance of grace 
into the soul it loseth its dominion, but not its 
being ; its rule, but not its life. The utter ruin, 
destruction, and gradual annihilation of all the 
remainders of this cursed life of sin is our design 
and aim in this duty, which is therefore called 
mortification. The design of this duty, wherever 
it is in sincerity, is to leave sin neither operation, 
life, nor being. And this concerns us in all that 
we are and do : in our duties, in our callings, in 
our conversation with others, in our retirements, 
in the frames of our spirits, in our straits, in our 
mercies, in the use of our enjoyments, in our 
temptations. If we are negligent unto any occa- 
sion, we shall suffer by it. This is our enemy, 
and this is the war we are engaged in ; every 
mistake, every neglect, is perilious. Rom. viii. 
6 — 13. Owen. 

Every man blameth the devil for his sins ; but 

the great devil, the house- devil of every man, that 

eateth and lyeth in every man's bosom, that idol 

that killeth all, is himself. O blessed are they 

b 4 



8 



ON SIN. 



that can deny themselves, and put Christ in the 
room of themselves ! O would to the Lord I had 
not a myself, but Christ ; not a my lust, but 
Christ ; not a my ease, but Christ ; not a my 
honour, but Christ ! O sweet word ! (Gal. ii. 20.) 
I live no more, but Christ liveth in me ! O 
if every one would put away himself, his own 
self, his own ease, his own pleasure, his own 
credit, and his own twenty things, his own 
hundred things, that he setteth up as idols 
above Christ ! Phil, in. 7—10. 2 Cor. iv. 10. 

Rutherford. 

Darkness in the minds of men, ignorance of 
God, his nature, and his will, was the original of 
all evil unto the world, and yet continues so to be. 
For hereon did Satan erect his kingdom and 
throne, obtaining in his design until he bare him- 
self as the God of this world, and was so esteemed 
by the most. He exalted himself by virtue of this 
darkness (as he is the prince of darkness) into the 
place and room of God, as the object of the reli- 
gious worship of men. For the things which the 
Gentiles sacrificed they sacrificed unto devils, and 
not unto God, (1 Cor. x. 23 . Psalm cvi. 37.) This 



ON SIN. 



9 



is the territory of Satan, yea, the power and scep- 
ter of his kingdom in the minds of the children of 
disobedience. Hereby he maintains his dominion 
to this day in many and great nations, and with 
individual persons innumerable. This is the spring 
of all wickedness and confusion among men them- 
selves. Hence arose that flood of abominations in 
the old world, which God took away with a flood 
of desolation. Hence were the sins of Sodom and 
Gomorrah, which he revenged with fire from 
heaven. In brief, all the rage, blood, confusion, 
desolations, cruelties, oppressions, and villanies, 
which the world hath been and is filled withal, 
whereby the souls of men have been and are 
flooded into eternal destruction, have all arisen 
from this corrupt fountain of the ignorance of 
God. Prow i. 24, 31. Owen. 



10 ON THE LOVE OF GOD IN CHRIST, 



CHAPTER II. 



ON THE LOVE OF GOD IN CHRIST. 



Jesus Christ is so high in dignity that no worth 
can recommend any creature to Him ; therefore 
He takes them that are under his feet, poor sin- 
ners, upon whom He can tread as upon those in 
hell; and He can love them heartily and familiarly, 
make them his queen, set them at his own right 
hand. Therefore be not discouraged, though you 
be laid never so low at his feet in a sense of your 
own vileness ; for it is all one to Jesus Christ. 
The truth is, He hath none else to marry but those 
that are under his feet. He must have no wife if 
He have not those that are perfect slaves : yea, if 
He will have the sons of men, He must have 
enemies, upon whom He might tread, and trample 
under his feet. Deut. vii. 7. Ezek. xxxvi. 
22, 32, Goodwin. 



ON THE LOVE OF GOD IX CHRIST, 1 1 



To fancy that all the love of Christ unto us con- 
sists in the precepts and promises of the gospel, 
and all our love unto Him in the observance of his 
commands, without a real love in Him unto our 
persons, like that of an husband to his wife, and 
an holy affection in our hearts and minds unto his 
person, is to overthrow the whole power of reli- 
gion, to despoil it of its life and soul, leaving 
nothing but the carcass of it. Gal. ii. 20. John 
xvii. 21. Eph. v. 25 — 27. 1 Cor. xvi. 22. 

Owex. 

Xo where doth the incredible love of God 
towards miserable mortals more evidently display 
itself than in Jesus Christ, which is suited to melt 
the heart frozen even into ice, and to kindle into 
ardent flames of mutual love ; for the love of 
Christ constrained) us, (2 Cor. v. 14, 15.) Who 
swallowed up in the meditation thereof, doth not 
cry out, 'Art Thou, O most loving Jesus, scorched 
no less with love to me than with the flames of 
divine wrath against my sins, and shall T grow 
lukewarm in my love to thee again ? Hast Thou 
died for my salvation, and shall not I live to thy 
glory ; Didst Thou for my sake descend into hell, 



12 ON THE LOVE OF GOD IN CHRIST. 

and shall I not at thy command cheerfully tread 
the way to heaven ? Didst Thou deliver thyself 
to be tormented with the pains of hell, and shall 
not I give up myself to Thee, to bear thy yoke 
which is light, and thy burden which is sweet ?' 
It is inexpressible how the pious soul, intent on 
such meditations, is displeased with its own luke- 
warmness ; desiring and wishing for itself, that a 
mind an hundred times more capacious might be 
given, that it might be wholly filled with the love 
of Christ. Psalm cxix. 32. Witsius. 

These are the tremendous mysteries of our reli- 
gion, which was kept secret since the world began, 
but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of 
the prophets, according to the commandment of 
the everlasting God, made known to all nations 
for the obedience of faith, (Rom. xvi. 25, 26.) 
From hence the divinity of Christianity openly 
appears. What wisdom of men or angels could 
have been able to conceive of such hidden, such 
sublime things, and at so great a distance from the 
understanding of all creatures ! What adorable 
wisdom of God, what righteousness, holiness, 
truth, goodness, and love of mankind, doth here 



ON THE LOVE OF GOD IN CHRIST. 13 

open itself, in finding out, in giving in, in perfect- 
ing, this means of our salvation ! How pleasingly 
doth conscience, pressed with the burden of its 
sins, acquiesce in such a surety, in such an 
engagement ! Here at length observing a manner 
of our i*econciliation worthy of God and secure to 
man ! Who, contemplating these things in the 
light of the Holy Spirit, would not burst forth into 
the praise of that most holy, most just, most true, 
best and greatest Deity ! O the depth of the 
riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! O 
mysteries which the angels desire to look into ! 
Glory to the Father, who hath raised up, admitted, 
and given to us such a surety ! Glory to the Son, 
who clothing Himself with our flesh, hath so 
willingly, so patiently, so constantly, gone through 
such an engagement for us ! Glory to the Holy 
Spirit, the revealer, witness, and pledge of so great 
happiness to us ! All hail ! O Christ Jesus, thou 
true and eternal God, true and holy man, both at 
once ; the properties of both natures preserved in 
the unity of thy person ! Thee, we acknowledge, 
Thee we worship, to Thee we betake ourselves, at 
thy feet we throw ourselves, from thy hand alone 

c 



14 



ON THE LOVE OP GOD IN CHRIST. 



we expect salvation : Thou the only Saviour, we 
would be thy peculiar ones, and are so by thy 
grace, and for ever shall remain so. Let the 
whole world of thine elect know Thee, acknow- 
ledge Thee, and with us adore Thee, and be saved 
by Thee ! This is the sum of our faith, our hope, 
and oar prayer. Amen. Rom. xi. 33. Ibid. 

Wouldst thou know the love of God ? measure 
it not by an outward thing, by wealth, honour, or 
outward prosperity ; for this is common with infi- 
dels and reprobates, whom the Lord abhorreth. 
No, there is no outward created comfort can 
secure us of God's favour ; only the having Christ, 
and receiving Him by faith as a gift from the 
Father : this only is that which is the special 
pledge of God's favour and love. What is all that 
the wicked have, the dew of heaven, gladness of 
heart, sun- shine, &c. ? If they have not the 
righteousness of Christ to cover them, the life of 
Christ to quicken them, such things as eye never 
saw, their condition is woeful. Job xxvii. 8. 
Matt. xvi. 26. Bain. 

If the goodness of God is so admirably seen in 
the works of nature and the favours of providence, 



ON THE LOVE OF GOD IN CHRIST. 



15 



with what a nohle superiority does it even triumph 
in the mystery of redemption ! Redemption is the 
brightest mirror in which to contemplate this 
most lovely attribute of the Deity. Other gifts 
are only as mites from the divine treasury ; but 
redemption opens, I had almost said exhausts, all 
the stores of his glorious grace. Herein God 
commendeth his love ; not only manifests, but ren- 
ders it perfectly marvellous ; manifests it in so 
stupendous a manner, that it is beyond parellel, 
beyond thought, and above all blessing and praise. 
Psalm cvii. 2. cxi. 9. cxiii. 7, 8. cxxxix. 17. 
Rom. v. 8. Eph. iii. 19. Hervey. 

Grace is so free, that the mercy we abuse, the 
Name we have profaned, the Name of which we 
have deserved wrath, opens its mouth with pleas 
for us, (Ezek. xxxvi. 21.) His name, while it 
pleads for them, mentions their demerits, that 
grace might appear to be grace indeed, and tri- 
umph in its own sweetness. Rom. v. 20. Eph. ii. 
4, 5. Charnock. 



16 



ON SALVATION BY GRACE. 



CHAPTER III. 

ON SALVATION BY GRACE. 

If any thing ought to be accounted worthy of the 
most attentive consideration, it is indeed the 
covenant of grace. Here a way is shewn unto a 
better paradise than the earthly, and to a more 
certain and more stable happiness than that from 
which Adam fell. Here new hopes shine upon 
ruined mortals, which by so much ought the more 
to be acceptable, by how much it came more un- 
expected. Here conditions are offered, to which 
eternal life is annexed ; conditions not again by us 
to be performed, which would cause the mind to 
despond ; but by Him who departed not this life, 
before He had truly said, it is finished. Rom. 
x. 4. Witsius. 

God never made the covenant of works with any 
man since the fall, either with expectation that he 



ON SALVATION BY GRACE. 17 

should fulfil it, or to give him life by it ; for God 
never appoints any thing to an end to which it is 
utterly unsuitable and improper. Now the law, as 
it is a covenant of works, is become weak and un- 
profitable to the purpose of salvation, and there- 
fore God never appointed it to man, since the fall, 
to that end. And besides, it is manifest that the 
purpose of God, in the covenant made with Abra- 
ham, was to give life and salvation by grace and 
promise ; and therefore his purpose, in renewing 
the covenant of works, was not, neither could be, 
to give life and salvation by working, for then 
there would have been contradictions in the 
covenants, and instability in Him that made them. 
Rom. viii. 3. Gal. ii. 21. hi. 17—19. 

Marr. Mod. Divin. 
There is no finding out to perfection the breadth 
and length, the depth and height, of God's grace. 
The love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our 
Lord, passeth ail understanding. His grace, and 
his gifts by grace, unto believers are ineffable, in- 
finitely free, without any merit in us, or any 
motive; astonishingly rich, while we were enemies, 
most defiled and deformed ones, and equally with- 



18 



ON SALVATION BY GRACE. 



oat power to resist damning justice, and without 
the prudence to ask saving mercy, (Rom. v. 10. 
Eph. hi. 18, 19. Col. i. 21.) Angels, our elders 
and betters, were not pitied, but irreversibly- 
doomed to destruction . More than angels and 
all the creation was worth was given to redeem 
us, even as much more than they were worth as 
God by essence exceeds the mere creature. Christ 
is God by eternal essence, and yet God spared not 
his Son, but gave Him up to redeem rebels ; 
whereat hell envies, and heaven wonders. A 
vast tribute of praise must hence rise due, so due, 
that, if believers be silent, the stones must needs 
cry out. Believers, that are no longer mutes, 
have the dumb devil expelled, and their mouths 
opened for praise, their tongues touched with a 
coal from the holy altar, and qualified to lift up 
the name of their Redeemer. Luke xix. 40, 
2 Pet. ii. 4, 5. Rev. v. 9, 10. Burgess. 

God hath called us by his grace to his kingdom 
of glory : if we do not go by the door of grace, 
we shall not find the door of the kingdom of glory. 
Believers have not one thought of glory but what 
grace suggests to them, it never entered into 



ON SALVATION BY GRACE. 



19 



their minds to conceive such a thing. Free grace 
openeth the door, and they see such things as eye 
never saw, and hear such things as ear never 
heard, nor did enter into the heart of man. Rom. 
ix. 15, 16. T. Cole. 

God was a God to Adam before he fell ; but to 
be a God to sinners, this is grace. He was a God 
to Adam in innocency by virtue of the covenant of 
works ; but he is not a God to any sinner but in a 
way of free grace. Now that was the covenant, T 
will be a God to thee and thy seed, (Gen. xvii. 7.) 
Abraham was a sinner and a child of wrath by 
nature, as well as others ; yet God was his God 
truly. For God to be a God to them that never 
sinned, there may be merit ; but for God to be a 
God to those that have sinned, this is grace in- 
deed ! Angels are saved by works, sinners cannot 
be saved but by grace. That ever the Lord 
should condescend to engage in such a relation, as 
to give a sinner interest in Him and property in 
Him as his God, this is grace. They that do not 
think this is grace, they need not argument, but 
pity and prayer. Eph. i. 6. ii. 5, 8. Mather 

God saith to the soul, I am thy salvation ; and 

c 4 



20 



ON SALVATION BY GRACE. 



the soul saith again, Thou art my God. Faith is 
nothing else but a spiritual echo, returning that 
voice back again which God first speaks to the 
soul, For what acquaintance could the soul 
claim with so glorious a Majesty, if He should not 
first condescend so low as to speak peace, and 
whisper secretly to the soul, that He is our loving 
God and Father, and we his peculiar ones in 
Christ ; that our sins are all pardoned, his justice 
fully satisfied, and our persons freely accepted in 
his dear Son? Gen. xv. 1. Jer. iii. 19. Isa. 
lxiii. 16, Lam. iii. 24. Sibbs. 

To say that we have a sufficiency in ourselves so 
much as to think a good thought, to do any thing 
as we ought, any power, any ability that is our 
own, or in us by nature, however externally ex- 
cited and guided by motives, directions, reasons, 
encouragements of what sort soever, to believe or 
obey the gospel savingly in any one instance, is to 
overthrow the gospel, and the faith of the catholic 
church in all ages. 2 Cor. iii. 5. Psalm Ixxxvii. 7. 

Owen. 

As for me, I find more solid truth in that one 
scripture, which tells us that The heart is de- 



OX SALVATION BY GRACE. 



•21 



ceitfal above all things, and desperately wicked, 
(Jer. xvii. 9.) than in many volumes of idle anti- 
scriptural notions, reared up on the subtile arguings 
of men, whose eyes have never been opened to see 
the plague of their own hearts, and who therefore 
run out in asserting such an ability and power, 
and inclination to good in man, as neither scrip- 
ture, nor the experience of such as have their eyes 
in the least measure opened, admits of. However 
if others will think that there are in them such 
good inclinations, I will quit my part in them. 
Woeful experience convinces me, and obliges me 
to acknowledge to my own shame, that I never 
looked towards the Lord's way, save when He 
drew me. ' I was as a bullock unaccustomed to 
the yoke.' I never went longer in it than the 
force lasted; I inclined to sit down, and sat indeed 
down at every step ; no great sign I had any heart 
to the way ! I never got up again, but when the 
Lord's power was of new put forth. I all this 
while never went one step but with a grudge ; I 
frequently looked back to Sodom ; I have been as 
a backsliding heifer ; I was grieved for what I left 
behind ; my heart clove to what my light had the 



22 



ON SALVATION BY GRACE. 



greatest opposition to. Thus I was of them that 
rebel against light. I often refused where the 
command was plainest. When I was brought 
into a strait, I betook myself rather to any shift 
than to Christ. Sin bit me, and yet I loved it : 
my heart deceived me often, and yet I trusted in 
it rather than in God. God dealt with me in a 
way of kindness ; but when He spake to me in my 
prosperity I would not hear : He smote me, and I 
went on frowardly : I never parted with any sin 
till God beat me and drove me from it, and hedged 
in my way. Surely this looks like the heart de- 
ceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. 
Gen. vi. 5. Rom. iii. 10 — 12. Prov. xxviii. 26. 
John v. 40. Halyburton. 

For any to say that a will to believe is not pur- 
chased by Christ, and effectually applied by Him, 
but depends on something to be done by men, is a 
great derogation to the merit of his sufferings. It 
is, in effect, to steal a jewel from our Sovereign's 
crown, and to wreath it on a fool's cap. Psalm 
ex. 3. Heb. xii. 2. E. Cole. 

Sorrow for sin and repentance are by no means 
to be looked on as separate from the blood and 



ON SALVATION BY GRACE. 



23 



redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ, but as flow- 
ing from it, and ordained by God in the hands of 
the Mediator, who truly gives it, washes it in his 
own blood, and as the great High-priest offers it 
with the incense, ointment, and rich perfumes of 
his own holiness, righteousness, and purity. He 
promotes, advances, and gives grace, and is con- 
tinually renewing it. (Rev. viii. 3, 4.) How 
adorable is that grace of God in Jesus Christ, 
which hath not only given us the doctrine of 
repentance, but by his Spirit gives the very grace 
itself ! He puts no trust in our own powers of 
understanding will, affections, natural conscience, 
reason, or morality ; but only in his own Spirit 
and grace in his Son. Nor doth he accept our 
repentance upon its worth, value and perfection ; 
but wraps it up in the rich robes of the righteous- 
ness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and so it is pleasing 
in his sight. So he does not lessen or derogate 
from the graciousness of his gospel in imposing 
such a duty, but He magnifies it by giving so high 
and admirable a grace and divine power within us. 
Psalm lxxx. 3. Job xv. 15. Jer. xxxi. 18, 19. 

Beverly, 



:>4 



ON SALVATION BY GRACE . 



Mercy in God is drawn out by his will; he 
pardoneth whom He will : I will have mercy on 
whom I will have mercy. The compassion itself 
doth not work necessarily in God, but it depends 
on an act of his will. If God had been merciful 
to no sinner, but had damned all men and angels 
that had sinned, yet He had been as merciful in 
his nature as now He is. So that our salvation 
must be resolved into some other principle than 
simply his being merciful. For had He not set 
his heart to love, had not his will been set upon 
it, not a man that sinned had ever had a drop of 
mercy from Him, though He is thus full and thus 
rich in mercy. So that, though God is rich in 
mercy, yet there must be love as the foundation. 
That which moved Him to be merciful to any, it 
was his love pitched upon them, and then seeing 
them in misery, love stirs up mercy. His love 
had first singled out certain persons whom He 
meant to show mercy to, and love did guide the 
channel which way mercy should run. And there- 
fore you shall find in scripture that election obtains 
it. Jacob have I loved. And that is the reason 
why He shews mercy to any, that the purpose of 



ON SALVATION BY GRACE, 



25 



God according to election might stand. Then let 
the love of God be the greatest thing in your 
hearts, the nearest thing to your souls of all else. 
Of all things in God, value his love, and seek 
after that. God's love is the greatest thing of all : 
it is more than all his benefits. The love of God 
is more than all his gifts : and yet He hath given 
great things to us, and done great things for us. 
His love is the first gift, in the gift of which all 
things else are yours. The gift of his Son, it was 
a great gift to us ; but it was founded in his love : 
He so loved the world, that He gave his only be- 
gotten Son. John hi. 16. Though we, being 
sinners, need mercy ; that is the next thing we 
want ; O mercy ! mercy ! because we apprehend 
ourselves to be in misery ; but do you look be- 
yond mercy ; look to love, which is a greater 
thing to you than mercy. The reason why mercy 
ran into your hearts, and washed you with the 
blood of Christ, is because love guided the chan- 
nel. To seek after mercy, this self-love and the 
misery thou art in, will make thee do. O but 
there is something else, saith a good soul ; it is 
the love of God and the favour of God that I would 

D 



2<j 



ON SALVATION BY GRACE. 



see ; and it is not self-love will ever carry a man 
on to seek after that. And what is the reason 
that this chiefly is the pursuit of a soul spiritualized ? 
One, among others, is this, because grace is al- 
ways the image of God's heart. Now this being 
the chief thing in God's heart, and the first and 
the highest thing, hence therefore the soul seeks 
that ultimately and chiefly. John hi. 16. Psalm 
lxxviii. 68. Mai. i. 2, 3. Gal. ii. 20. 

Goodwin. 

Here is the grave, the wrath of God, and 
devouring flames, the just punishment of sin, on 
the one side ; and here am I, a poor sinful soul, 
on the other side : but this is my comfort, the 
covenant of grace, which is established upon so 
many sure promises, hath salved all. There is an 
act of oblivion passed in heaven : I will forgive 
their iniquities, and their sins will I remember no 
more. This is the blessed privilege of all within 
the covenant, among whom I am one. 1 Cor„ 
xv. 55, — 57. Lyford. 

The nature of man was originally formed blame- 
less, and without any vice : but now every one, 
born after the likeness of sinful Adam, needs the 



ON SALVATION BY GRACE. 



27 



Physician, because he is not whole. Whatever 
good was in our original constitution, has the 
great God for its author, while the evil which ob- 
scured it, is not attributable to him, but is derived 
from that original sin, which the will, then free, 
contracted ; and this latter nature is subject to the 
penalty justly incurred. If even, therefore, we 
are in Christ, we were children of wrath as others. 
s But God who is rich in mercy, for his great love 
wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead 
in trespasses and sins, hath quickened us together 
with Christ, by whose grace we are saved.' This 
grace of Christ, therefore, without which, neither 
infants, nor those arrived at man's estate can be 
saved, is not rendered to merit, but is freely given, 
and hence it is called grace. For all men have 
sinned, either in Adam, or in themselves, and have 
come short of the glory of God. To this univer- 
sal mass of wickedness, punishment is consequently 
due, and if all to" whom condemnation is justly 
awarded, received the deserved penalty, it would 
not be unjustly rendered. He therefore who is 
saved by grace, cannot be a vessel of merit but a 
vessel of mercy. Augustine, 



28 



ON FAITH IN CHRIST. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ON FAITH IN CHRIST. 

True faith is humble, and seeth no way to 
escape but only in Christ. John vi, 68. 

Rutherford. 

Faith makes us draw all our comforts from a 
fountain that will never fail. Heb. xiii. 5. Col. 
i. 19. John i. 16. Halyburton. 

It is a matter of faith not to trust to that which 
the eye seeth, but that which the word promiseth. 
Rom. iv. 18 — 20. Luther. 

He that believeth the gospel with hearty love 
and liking, as the most excellent truth, will cer- 
tainly with the like heartiness believe on Christ for 
his salvation. 1 Thess. i. 5, 9, 10. Marshall. 

Faith takes hold on something that is material, 
and makes the soul triumph in hope. Heb. xi. 1. 

T. Cole. 



OX FAITH IN CHRIST, 



29 



When any person comes practically to know 
how great a thing it is for an apostate sinner to 
obtain the remission of sins, and an inheritance 
among them that are sanctified, endless objections 
through the power of unbelief, will arise unto his 
disquietment. ^lierefore that which is princi- 
pally suited to give him rest, peace, and satisfac- 
tion, and without which, nothing else can do so, 
is the due consideration of, and the acting faith 
upon that infinite effect of divine wisdom and 
goodness in the constitution of the person of 
Christ. This, at first view, will reduce the mind 
unto that conclusion, If thou canst believe, all 
things are possible. For what end cannot be 
effected hereby ? what end cannot be accomplished 
that was designed in it ? Is any thing too hard 
for God ? Did God ever do any thing like this, 
or make use of any such means for any other end 
whatever ? Against this no objection can arise. 
On this consideration of Him, faith apprehends 
Christ to be, as indeed he is, the power of God 
and the wisdom of God unto the salvation of them 
that do believe, and therein doth it find rest with 
peace. Mic. vi. 6 — 8. vii 8. 1. Dan. ix. 24= Owen, 



30 



ON FAITH IN CHRIST. 



Justifying faith consisteth in the heart's appro- 
bation of the way of justification and salvation of 
sinners by Jesus Christ proposed in the gospel, as 
proceeding from the grace, wisdom, and love of 
God, with its acquiescence therein as to its own 
concernment and condition. John xi. 25—27. 

Owen. 

An approbation of God's way of saving sinners 
by Jesus Christ, to the praise of the glory of his 
grace, I take to be the true scriptural notion of 
justifying faith. And it really gives Him that 
glory which he designed by all this contrivance, 
the glory of his wisdom, grace, mercy, and truth. 
Rom. iii. 24, 26. Halyburton. 

It is the person of Christ which is the first and 
principal object of that faith wherewith we are 
required to believe in Him ; and so to do is not 
only to assent unto the truth of the doctrine 
revealed by Him, but also to place our trust and 
confidence in Him for mercy, relief, and protec- 
tion, for righteousness, life, and salvation, for a 
blessed resurrection and eternal reward. John 
xiv. 1. vi. 54. 1 John v. 10, 11. Owen. 

Those that with due affection believe stedfastly 



ON FAITH IX CHRIST , 



31 



on Christ for the free gift of all his salvation may 
find by experience, that they are carried forth by 
that faith, according to the measure of its strength 
or weakness, to love God heartily, because He 
hath loved them first, to praise Him and to pray 
unto Him in the name of Christ. Marshal. 

To go and venture upon God, upon the freedom 
of His grace, upon the promises of God, upon the 
commands of God, and to stand at God's arbitre- 
ment, and to refer a man's will to his will, and to 
cast a man's self into those everlasting arms, it is 
as if a man should leave his own standing, and 
cast himself into the arms of a mighty giant that 
stands upon another pinnacle ; one whom he also 
has often wronged and abused ; and he himself 
hath no hands to lay upon him neither, but he 
must depend upon his catching him : here is the 
greatest venture, the greatest trust, the greatest 
self-denial that can be. Thus the heart throws 
itself out of all possibilities, and submits to the 
free -grace of God in Christ : and this is done in 
believing. Isa. viii. 17. L 10. Ps. Ixii. 8. 

Goodwin 

Of all acts of faith, this of pure trust doth 

d 4 



32 ON FAITH IN CHRIST, 

i 

honour God most, and indeed hath more of faith 
in it : the purer the trust is, the greater the trust 
is ; and the greater the trust is, the greater the 
faith is ; and the greater the faith, the more 
honour comes to God. The end why God hath 
ordained faith is, that his free grace might he 
glorified : now his free grace is glorified by no act 
of faith more than by this of pure trusting in Him. 
In (Rom. iv. 20,) where Abraham's faith is set out 
to us, it is set out by this, that he gave glory to 
God. You do not honour God so much by your 
love, you do not honour Him so much by being 
assured of his love, as you do by trusting in his 
love. It magnifies the sovereignty of God, which 
God aims to magnify in our salvation : it leaves 
the soul at God's feet ; for that is the posture of 
the soul, when it says, Here am I, and I will trust 
in thee alone. It magnifies the faithfulness of 
God ; and faithfulness is that attribute which, in 
one that makes a promise, is the chief thing he 
aims at. Now faith takes hold on Christ through 
a promise ; therefore it is a grace suited and fitted 
to magnify the faithfulness of God more than 
loving Him. If a man has assurance, he doth 



ON FAITH IN CHRIST. 



33 



glorify God in a way of rejoicing, in a way of 
triumphing, in a way of thankfulness ; but pure 
trust doth glorify God another way, it glorifies 
God in a way of obedience. Oftentimes a man 
trusteth God for the salvation of his soul, and 
goes on so to do, and doth not of a long time 
know that God hath received him ; he hath not 
received an earnest penny a long while of what he 
trusted God for (for joy in the Holy Ghost is the 
reward of faith.) Now, to stand thus out of purse 
for many years before a man receives a penny, 
this is a great and mighty trust. For a man to 
venture to sea without either sail, oar, or mast, or 
any thing of his own, and to be wafted by Jesus 
Christ and free grace, to commit himself to those 
winds which shall blow from Him from that 
promise He makes ; this is the great trust, and 
this the soul doth when he comes to Christ. Job. 
xiii. 15. Isa. 1. 10. Dan. iii. 17, 18. Jon. ii. 
4. John vi. 68, 69. Ibid. 

Those that receive Christ with an unfeigned 
faith shall never want a wedding garment to adorn 
them in the sight of God. Faith itself is very 
precious in the sight of God, and most holy. 



34 



ON" FAITH IN CHRIST. 



(2 Pet. i. 1. Jude 29.) God loves it because it 
giveth the glory of our salvation only to the free 
grace of God in Christ, (Rom. iv. 16.) and re- 
nounceth all dependance on any conditions that 
we can perform to procure a right to Christ, or to 
make ourselves acceptable to Him. The excel- 
lency of faith lies in this, that it accounteth not 
itself, nor any other work of ours, a sufficient 
ornament to make us acceptable in the sight of 
God. It will not be our wedding- garment itself ; 
but it buyeth of Christ white raiment that we may 
be clothed, and that the shame of our nakedness 
may not appear. Rev. iii. 18. Marshal. 

Faith embraceth the knowledge of the mystery 
of God and Christ in the light of grace ; the truth 
of which mystery the believer acknowledgeth with 
full consent of mind on the authority of the testi- 
mony of God ; and not only so, but he loveth the 
truth, rejoiceth in it, and glorifieth God ; and most 
earnestly desires communion with Christ, that 
those things which are true in Christ, may be true 
also to him for salvation : wherefore, when Christ 
is offered to him by the word and Spirit, he 
reeeiveth Him with the greatest willingness of 



ON FAITH IN CHRIST. 



35 



mind, he leans upon Him, he rests upon Him, and 
gives up himself wholly to Him ; which being 
done, he now glorieth that He is his, and in Him 
most pleasantly delighteth, resting under the 
shadow of the Tree of life, and satiating himself 
with his most sweet fruits. This is the faith of 
God's elect, the invaluable gift, the bond of our 
union with Christ, the heavenly ladder, the key of 
the ark of the covenant, by which are unlocked 
the treasures thereof, the never-ceasing fountain of 
a holy, happy, quiet life. Heb. xi. Wits i us. 

The soul that is under the conduct of faith is 
not capable of any one desire that any thing were 
otherwise than it is in the will of God concerning 
our holiness and obedience, no more than it can 
desire that God should not be what He is. Psalm 
xxx. 4. cxix. 128. Owen. 

The gospel doth these two things, viz. It sets 
before us our lost undone condition by nature, 
and shews us the remedy in Christ ; always offer- 
ing mercy in Christ to all whom God calls to 
repentance : it is inconsistent with the goodness 
and wisdom of God to do otherwise : evangelical 
repentance must be from evangelical motives. 



36 



ON FAITH IN CHRIST. 



This offer of grace and pardon in Christ must be 
proposed to our hearers ; and, when proposed, it 
must be believed in some degree of saving faith, 
before a sinner can entertain one serious thought 
of evangelical repentance. This offer of mercy 
received by faith implies a secret hope of pardon, 
which I conceive is the first saving work upon 
the soul. Faith, being thus wrought, causes a 
looking unto Christ only for salvation, and a secret 
reliance upon Him for salvation ; and such a faith 
wrought in never so low a degree, I take to be 
true, saving, justifying faith. This faith includes 
in it the seeds of all other graces, which spring up 
under the influences of faith according to the 
degree of it. This faith works by love, and causes 
true evangelical repentance, which though it be no 
cause of our justification, yet it is always an effect 
of justifying faith, found in all who are justified. 
Jer. xxxi. 19. Luke xix. 8. Cole. 

Faith doth engraft a man, who is by nature a 
wild olive-branch, into Christ, as into the natural 
olive, and fetcheth sap from the root Christ, and 
thereby makes the tree bring forth fruit in its kind ; 
yea, faith fetcheth a supernatural efficacy from the 



ON FAITH IN CHRIST, 



37 



death and life of Christ, by virtue whereof, it re- 
news the heart of a believer, and createth and 
infaseth into him new principles of action : so that 
w T hat a treasure of all graces Christ hath stored up 
in Him, faith draineth and draweth them out to 
the use of a believer ; being as a conduit-cock, 
that watereth all the herbs in the garden; yea, 
faith doth apply the blood of Christ to a believer's 
heart, and the blood of Christ hath in it not only 
a power to wash from the guilt of sin, but to 
cleanse and purge likewise from the power and 
stain of sin. And therefore, saith godly Hooker, 
if you would have grace, you must first of all get 
faith, and that will bring all the rest. Let faith 
go to Christ, and there is meekness, patience, hu- 
mility, and wisdom, and faith will fetch all them 
to the soul : therefore, saith he, you must not look 
for sanctiflcation till you come to Christ in voca- 
tion. John xv. 4, 5. Phil. iv. 13. 

Mark. Mod. Divin. 
True, saving, justifying faith carries the soul 
through all difficulties, discouragements, and 
natural impossibilities, to Jesus Christ. Rom. iv. 19. 

Bridge. 

E 



38 



ON FAITH IN CHRIST. 



But it remains that we inquire how faith justi- 
fies. Certainly not in that sense, as though God 
graciously accepts the act of faith, and new evan- 
gelical obedience proceeding from faith, in the 
room of that perfect obedience which, according 
to the strictness of the law, we ought to have : for 
this were to make void the whole gospel. In the 
room of perfect obedience, which the law requires 
to justification, the gospel hath not substituted our 
faith, but the obedience of Christ, by which the 
righteousness of the law is fulfilled: and it is false, 
that faith and our obedience are one and the same 
thing. I confess, faith is a virtue commanded by 
the law of God, and that the believer, so far as he 
believes, does obey God. T confess again, no 
faith is to be accounted true and living which is 
not big with good works. But yet faith is one 
thing, and obedience flowing from faith quite 
another thing, especially in the business of justi- 
fication, of which we treat, for Paul always contra- 
distinguisheth all manner of works from faith. 
Lastly, neither the truth nor righteousness of 
God suffers, that our faith and obedience, which 
are imperfect, should be admitted as perfect : for 



OX FAITH IK CHRIST, 



39 



it is the will of God, that the righteousness of the 
law should be fulfilled in our justification, not that 
any thing should derogate from it. Gal. hi. 10. 

WlTSIUS. 

Faith's discovery of forgiveness in God, though 
it have no present sense of its own peculiar in- 
terest therein, is the great supportment of a sin- 
perplexed soul. Psalm cxxx. 4. Owen. 

This seems to be little considered in such 
enquiries some have about their inward state, and 
whether they believe or not, how it is much 
greater to believe the truth in general than any 
personal application thereof can be in their case ; 
for which the apostle clearly reasons in (Rom. 
viii. 32.) He that spared not his own Son, how 
will He not with Him give us all things ? For if 
we be assured of that in which the greatest diffi- 
culty of faith lies, must it not by clear consequence 
follow, that what concerns our interest is but as 
straining at a gnat, when such a thing is once 
swallowed : and where a Christian hath got this 
length, to believe the testimony of God is such 
whereon with greatest security he can repose his 
soul, personal evidences cannot then stay behind, 



40 



ON FAITH IN CHRIST. 



if there be a serious endeavour in their essays 
after holiness. For the greater wonder here is to 
believe the truth of the gospel, that He is able to 
save to the utmost all who come unto Him, more 
than his saving me : and it may be too obvious, 
that the cause whence the last is obstructed, is so 
small an establishment in the first. 1 Tim. i> 15; 
Isa. liii. 1. Psalm cxvi. 10. John vi. 69. 

Fleming. 

The going forth of the soul by faith unto Christ 
as the Anointed of the Lord, sent and sealed by 
the Father to undertake the great work of man's 
redemption, is a sure evidence of regeneration. 
Matt. xvi. 17. T, Cole. 



ON JUSTIFICATION BY CHRIST. 



41 



CHAPTER Y. 

ON JUSTIFICATION BY CHRIST. 

Question. How art thou righteous before God ? 

Answer. By faith alone in Jesus Christ ; so 
that although my own conscience do accuse me 
that I have grievously offended against all the 
commandments of God, and have not kept any one 
of them, moreover also that I am prone to all 
evil, yet notwithstanding (so that I embrace these 
benefits with true affiance of mind) without any 
merit of my own, of the mere mercy of God, the 
perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of 
Christ, is imputed and given unto me as if I never 
had committed any sin, neither were there any 
blot or corruption cleaving unto me ; yea, as if I 
myself had perfectly performed that obedience 
which Christ hath performed for me. 1 Cor. i. 30. 
Rom. x. 4. Heidelb. Catechism, 



42 



ON JUSTIFICATION BY CHRIST. 



The truth is, the satisfaction of Christ is the 
foundation of pardon ; this satisfaction lies in the 
expiatory sacrifice offered by Christ upon the 
cross : hence expiation or atonement is joined with 
pardon in scripture. (Numb. xv. 25. Lev. iv. 20.) 
The priest was to make atonement that the sin 
might be forgiven. An expiatory sacrifice led the 
way to forgiveness under the law. And so it 
does now under the gospel. Without shedding of 
blood there is no remission of sins : if you have 
not the blood of Christ in your eye when you go 
to God for pardon, never think to speed. Matt, 
xxvi. 28. Heb. ix. 22. T. Cole. 

The law admits of no pardon, allows of none ; 
it is not at all concerned about that matter, but 
seeks its own satisfaction in a way of strict justice ; 
the law is all for justice : mercy comes in by 
another covenant, It was never in the nature 
and constitution of the law to give life to a sinner ; 
the law cannot do that : it can give life to a 
righteous man, but not to a sinner ; the law will 
prosecute him to death : it would act contrary to 
itself, to its own declared judgment and eternal 



ON JUSTIFICATION BY CHRIST. 



43 



sanction, if it should do otherwise. Gen. ii. 17. 
Rom. viii. 3. Ibid. 

God's infinite goodness, grace, mercy, and love, 
are infinitely glorified in the gift of Christ an 
infinite Saviour ; his infinite justice and holiness, 
in justifying a believer by his infinitely meritorious 
righteousness. A believer is more honourably 
justified by the infinitely meritorious righteouness 
of Christ imputed to him, than an angel by his 
inherent, perfect, personal righteousness, which is 
but the obedience of a finite person : a believer is 
more honourably sanctified by that grace which is 
the purchase of Christ's infinite merit, and the 
fruit of his Spirit dwelling in him, than an angel 
by that grace which is the gift only of God's 
creating bounty. Isa. xlii. 21. Glascock. 

The righteousness of the law in a strict legal 
sense (for I must be forced to distinguish, I know- 
many in this age will not understand me, but they 
that have ears to hear let them hear) I say the 
righteousness of the law in a strict legal sense, 
admits of no degrees, it must be perfect or none. 
It is true, a gradual tendency towards the exact 
righteousness of the law is commendable in any ; 

e 4 



44 ON JUSTIFICATION BY CHRIST. 



but, because it is not a fulfilling of the law, the 
law will not reward it, but punish that man as a 
sinner, not because he goes so far in his obedience, 
but because he goes no farther. A man may do 
many things ; but, if he doth not always do every 
thing that is right in the law, the law will curse 
that man, and his former righteousness shall not 
be remembered. Ezek. xviii. 24. Deut. xxvii. 
26. Gal. iii. 10. 11. T. Cole. 

True justifying faith puts the soul (as sensible 
of its lost condition by the law) upon flying for 
refuge unto Chrises righteousness, (which right- 
eousness of his is not an act of grace by which he 
makes our obedience accepted with God for justi- 
fication, but his personal obedience to the law in 
doing and suffering for us what that required at 
our hands.) This righteousness true faith accept- 
eth, under the skirt of which the soul being 
shrouded, and by it presented as spotless before 
God, it is accepted, and acquitted from condemna- 
tion, Phil. iii. 8, 9. Bunyan. 

The transcendant graciousness of the gospel 
covenant consists not in requiring less righteous- 
ness, to give title to life, than was due at first ; 



ON JUSTIFICATION BY CHRIST. 45 

but in not requiring a perfect righteousness per- 
sonally for that end, but providing and accepting 
that of a surety, according to the apostle, (Rom. 
viii. 3, 4.) The law could not give us life, because 
being weakened by sin, we could not perform the 
perfect righteousness which is required : but what 
the law could not do, Christ has done, giving us a 
title to life, fulfihing the righteousness of the law 
on our behalf. Rom. x. 4. 1 Cor. i. 30. 

Clarkson. 

Some are all their days laying the foundation, 
and are never able to build upon it to any comfort 
to themselves, or usefulness to others. And the 
reason is, because they will be mixing with the 
foundation, stones that are only fit for the follow- 
ing building. They will be bringing their 
obedience, duties, mortification of sin, and the like 
unto the foundation. These are precious stones 
to build with, but unmeet to be first laid to bear 
upon them the whole weight of the building. The 
foundation is to be laid in mere grace, mercy, 
pardon in the blood of Christ ; this the soul is to 
accept of, and to rest in merely as it is grace, 
without the consideration of any thing in itself, 



46 ON JUSTIFICATION BY CHRIST. 



but that it is sinful and obnoxious to ruin. This 
it finds a difficulty in, and would gladly have some- 
thing of its own to mix with it : it cannot tell how 
to fix these foundation stones without some 
cement of its own endeavours and duty : and 
because these things will not mix, they spend a 
fruitless labour about it all their days. But if the 
foundation be of grace, it is not at all of works ; 
otherwise grace is no more grace. If any thing 
of our own be mixed with grace in this matter, it 
utterly destroys the nature of grace, which, if it be 
not alone, it is not at all. Rom. xi. 6. Eph. ii. 
8, 9. Owen. 

We shall be sure to meet with the devil, with 
conscience, with wicked men, and with the law of 
God, in our way to heaven, and we can deal with 
none of them but by that righteousness which 
hath satisfied all ; let us bring that along with us, 
and they will all flee before it. If a sinner comes 
in his own righteousness, shut him out, saith God, 
so saith conscience, so saith the law, so saith the 
devil : but when one comes clothed with the right- 
eousness of Christ, let him in saith God, so saith 
conscience, so saith the law, and let the devil say 



ON JUSTIFICATION BY CHRIST, 47 

a word to the contrary if he dare. Rom. v. 1. 
Phil. iii. 9. Galiii. 10, 11. 

T. Cole. 

It is a vain and foolish thing to seek for the 
justification of a sinner without satisfaction to the 
justice of God, which he can never give, but by 
the righteousness of Christ imputed to him. 
While justice remains unsatisfied, it will overthrow 
all other grounds of hope for justification, which 
we may take up from our own works and doings. 
The justice of God strikes an unjustified sinner 
under the curse, and so leaves him in a condemned 
state. John iii. 18. Ibid. 

Our faith, or act of believing, cannot be the 
matter of justification, for that it is an imperfect 
thing, and so cannot be reckoned in the place of 
perfect righteousness : for it must be a righteous- 
ness perfectly perfect that justifies, as it was a sin 
perfectly sinful that condemned. This righteous- 
ness also must be our own in a way of right, (as 
Adam's sin also was) though performed in the 
person of another : Christ and Adam being 
parallels in their headship, the imputation of one's 
guiltiness, and the other's righteousness are right- 



48 ON" JUSTIFICATION BY CHRIST, 



eously applied to their respective seeds, And this 
was a main end of God's putting those he would 
justify into Christ : That He being made sin and 
a curse for them, they might be made the right- 
eousness of God in him, and so God might be just 
in justifying them. Rom.iii. 24 — 26. E.Cole. 

Let us see what manner of support and en- 
couragement faith may fetch from Christ's death 
for justification ; and surely that which hath long 
satisfied God himself for the sins of many thou- 
sands now in heaven, may very well serve to satisfy 
the heart and conscience of any sinner now upon 
earth in any doubts, in respect of the guilt of sin, 
that can arise. The apostle, after that large dis- 
course of justification by Christ's righteousness, 
in the former part of the epistle to the Romans, 
and having shewed how every way it abounds, 
chap, v. in chap. viii. sits down, as it were, like a 
man over- convinced, as ver. 31. "What then 
shall we say to these things ?" He speaks as one 
satisfied, and even astonished, with abundance of 
evidence; having nothing to say, but only to 
admire God and Christ in this work ; and there- 
fore presently throws down the gauntlet, and 



OX JUSTIFICATION BY CHRIST. 49 

challengeth a dispute with all comers : Let con- 
science, carnal reason, law, sin, hell, and devils, 
bring all their strength. ' Who is he that shall 
lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ? who 
shall condemn ?' Paul dares to answer them all, 
and carry it with these few words, ' It is God 
that justifies ; It is Christ that died ; and as in 
verse 37. In all these things we are more than 
conquerors.' And so likewise the author of 
Psalm 130, when his soul was in deep distress by 
reason of his sins, verse 1, 2, yet this was it that 
set his soul to wait upon God, That there w T as 
plenteous redemption in Him. Christ's redemp- 
tion is not merely a price a ransom equivalent, or 
making a due satisfaction according to the just 
demerit of sin ; but is plenteous redemption ; there 
is abundance of the gift of righteousness, and un- 
searchable riches of Christ : yea, (1 Tim. i. 14.) 
The grace of our Lord (that is of Christ) was 
abundant ; but the word reacheth farther, it was 
overfull, redundant, more than enough, and yet 
says Paul, I had sins enough to pardon, one would 
think to exhaust it, I was a blasphemer, &c. but I 

F 



50 ON JUSTIFICATION BY CHRIST. 

found so much grace in Christ, even more than 1 
knew what to do withah 1 Tim. i. 13 — 15. 

Goodwin. 

Whensoever thou hast to do in the matter of 
justification, and disputest with thyself, how God 
is to be found that justifieth and accepteth sinners, 
where and in what sort He is to be sought, then 
know thou that there is no other God but the man 
Christ Jesus. Embrace Him, and cleave to Him 
with thy whole heart, setting aside all curious 
speculations of the Divine Majesty. For he that 
is a searcher of God's Majesty shall be over- 
whelmed of his glory. I know by experience 
what I say. Christ himself saith, (Jobxiv. 6.) 'I 
am the way, the truth, and the life ; no man 
cometh to the Father but by me/ Therefore, 
besides this way Christ, thou shalt find no other 
way to the Father, but wandering ; no truth, but 
hypocrisy ; no life, but eternal death. Wherefore 
mark this well in the matter of justification, that, 
when any of us shall have to wrestle with the law, 
sin, death, and all other evils, we must look upon 
no other God but only this God incarnate, and 



ON JUSTIFICATION BY CHRIST. 51 

clothed with man's nature. Eph. ii. 18. Col. i. 
15, 20. • Luther. 

The grand design of all false religions is to 
patch up a self-righteousness for the justification 
of a sinner before God. The Christian religion 
teacheth us seek justification before God by the 
imputation of Christ's righteousness to us upon 
our believing on Him ; which righteousness pur- 
chaseth for us not only pardon of sin, but also 
grace and glory, (Gal. ii. 21. v. 4. Rom. ix. 
31, 32.) The true and proper imputation of 
Christ's righteousness is the act of God as a 
judge, accepting the righteousness of Christ for a 
believer, as such a righteousness as that law 
which is the rule of judgment requires, for the 
justification of a sinner. The denial of a believer's 
justification by such an imputation of Christ's 
righteousness to him stabs the very heart of 
Christianity, and destroys all true revealed reli- 
gion. Rom. iv. 24. Gal. :. 6 — 8. Glascock. 

None of the Israelites under the Old Testament 
were ever saved by the old Sinai covenant; neither 
did any of them ever attain to holiness by the 
terms of it. Some of them did indeed perform 



52 ON JUSTIFICATION BY CHRIST. 

the commandments of it sincerely, though imper- 
fectly : but those were justified first, and made 
partakers of life and holiness by virtue of that 
better covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, which was the same in substance with the 
new covenant or testament, established by the 
blood of Christ. Had it not been for that better 
covenant, the Sinai covenant would have proved 
to them an occasion of no happiness, but only of 
sin and despair and destruction. Of itself it was 
only a killing letter, the ministration of death and 
condemnation ; and therefore it is now abolished, 
(2 Cor. hi. 6 — 11.) We have cause to praise 
God for delivering his church by the blood of 
Christ from this yoke of bondage : and we have 
cause to abhor the device of those that would lay 
upon us a more grievous and terrible yoke, by 
turning our very new covenant into a covenant of 
sincere works, and leaving us no such better 
covenant as the Israelites had under their yoke to 
relieve us in our extremity. Gal. i. 8. ii. 16. 

Marshal. 

All zealous, devout people in a natural religion 
are enemies to the gospel. By natural religion I 



ON JUSTIFICATION BY CHRIST. 53 

mean that which is the product of the remnant of 
God's image in fallen man, a little improved by 
the light of God's word. All such cannot endure 
to hear that God's law must be perfectly fulfilled 
in every tittle of it, or no man can be saved by 
doing ; that they must all perish for ever who 
have not the righteousness of a man who never 
sinned, who is also God over all, blessed for ever, 
to shelter and cover them from a holy God's 
anger, and to render them accepted of Him ; that 
this righteousness is put on by the grace of God, 
and a man must betake himself to it, and receive 
it as a naked, blushing sinner ; that no man can 
do any thing that is good till gospel-grace renew 
him, and make him first a good man. This they 
never will receive ; but do still think a man may 
grow good by doing good. Matt. xix. 16. 1 Cor. 
ii. 14. John v. 40. Trail. 

Nothing can avail in the business of justification 
unless it be plainly perfect, and in all things an- 
swers to the law of God. For in justification 
there is a declaration of the righteousness of God, 
(Rom. iii. 25, 26.) For that requires that the 
righteousness of the law be fulfilled, (Rom. viii. 4.) 



54 ON JUSTIFICATION BY CHRIST. 



And the righteousness of the law cannot be ful- 
filled but by a perfect obedience. This no man 
can challenge to himself but a vain boaster and a 
liar ; from whence we conclude, that no sinner can 
be justified by any act of his own, (Rom. iii. 20.) 
The apostle rests upon this axiom, that the 
righteousness which will be of any avail before the 
tribunal of God, must in all points be perfect ; but, 
seeing no works of any man are so, he concludes, 
that no works of any sort can confer any thing to 
justification. The apostle, without doubt, excludes 
all those works on which they who endeavour to 
establish their own righteousness do commonly 
rest ; and of those, it is not credible that there 
hath been any one who through the whole course 
of their lives will say, that they have kept them- 
selves undefiled with the least spot or stain of sin. 
Eccles. vii. 20. Witsius. 

Justification is a judicial act of God, but free, 
whereby an elect believing sinner is absolved from 
the guilt of his sins, and a right adjudged to him 
of eternal life, for and because of the obedience of 
Christ, received by faith. Rom. v. 1. Ibid. 



DIVINITY AND GLORY OF CHRIST. 



55 



CHAPTER YL 

DIVINITY AND GLORY OP CHRIST. 

The redeeming power of the blood of Christ is 
greater than the condemning power of sin. This 
excellency it hath from the dignity of his person 
for it is the blood of God, (Acts xx. 28.) which 
makes his obedience and sufferings give more 
glory to God than our suffering in hell would have 
done. Isa. xlii. 21. Rom. v. 17. S. Mather. 

I am sure my well-beloved is God. And when 
I say Christ is God, and my Christ is God, I have 
said all things, I can say no more. I would I could 
build as much on this, My Christ is God, as it 
would bear, I might lay all the world upon it. 
John x. 28. i. 49. Col i. 16, 17. Rutherford. 

They who reject the divine person of Christ, 
who believe it not, who discern not the wisdom, 
grace, love, and power of God therein, do con- 

f 4 



56 DIVINITY AND GLORY OF CHRIST. 

stantly reject or corrupt all other spiritual truths 
of divine revelation. Nor can it otherwise be : 
for they have a consistency only in their relation 
unto the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the 
flesh, and from thence derive their sense and 
meaning. This being removed, the truth in all 
other articles of religion immediately fall to the 
ground. 1. Tim. iii. 16. 1 John iv. 2, 3. Eph. 
ii. 20, 21. Col. ii. 7. Rev. 1. 18. Owen. 

By Him were all things created that are in 
heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, (Col. i. 
16, 17.) And because of the great notions and 
apprehensions that were then in the world, espe- 
cially among the Jews, (unto whom the apostle 
had respect in this epistle) of the greatness and 
glory of the invisible part of the creation in heaven 
above, he mentions them in particular under the 
most glorious titles that any other could or then 
did ascribe unto them : whether they be thrones, 
or dominions, or principalities, or powers ; all 
things were created by Him and for Him : the 
same expression that is used of God absolutely, 
(Rom. xi. 36. Rev. iv. 11. John i. 1—3. Heb. 
i. 1 — 3. And those that are not under the effi- 



DIVINITY AND GLORY OF CHRIST. 3/ 

cacy of spiritual infatuation, cannot but wonder at 
the power of unbelief, the blindness of the minds 
of men, and the craft of Satan in them who deny 
the divine nature of Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. iv. 4. 

Owen. 

Let it please the Lord to take me out of this 
life this hour, or whensoever he pleaseth, I leave 
this behind me, that I do and will acknowledge 
Jesus Christ for my Lord and my God. I have 
not this out of the scripture only, but also by 
great and manifold experience ; for the name of 
Jesus hath oftentimes helped me, when no creature 
could help or comfort me, (Pro v. xviii. 10. Song 
i. 3.) He that hath Christ for his king and God, 
let him be assured he hath the devil for his enemy, 
who will work him much sorrow, and will plague 
him all the days of his life. But let this be our 
comfort and great glory, that we poor people have 
the Lord of life and of death, and of all creatures, 
clothed with our flesh and blood, sitting at the 
right hand of God his Father, who ever liveth and 
maketh intercession for us, defendeth and pro- 
tecteth us. Acts hi. 15. Heb. ix. 24. Luther. 

Let the world rage while it pleaseth, let it set 



58 



DIVINITY AND GLORY OF CHRIST. 



itself with all its power and craft against every 
thing of Christ that is in it, which, whatever is 
pretended, proceeds from an hatred to his person ; 
let men make themselves drunk with the blood of 
his saints ; we have this to oppose unto all their 
attempts, unto our supportment, namely, what He 
says of Himself : Fear not, I am the first and the 
last, He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am 
alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and 
death, Rev. i. 16, 18. Owen. 

To suppose that the Lord Jesus Christ, as the 
king and head of the church, hath not an infinite 
divine power, whereby He is able to relieve, 
succour, save, and deliver it, if it were to be done 
by the alteration of the whole, or any part of God's 
creation, so that as the fire should not burn, nor 
the water overwhelm them, nor men be able to 
retain their thoughts or ability one moment to 
afflict them ; and that their distresses are not 
always the effects of his wisdom, and never from 
the defect of his power ; is utterly to overthrow 
all faith, hope, and the whole of religion itself, (Gen. 
xxxi 29. i. 4. Dan. iii. 27.) There are no true 
believers who will part with their faith herein for 



DIVINITY AND GLORY OF CHRIST, 



59 



the whole world; namely, that the Lord Jesus 
Christ is able, by his divine power and presence, 
immediately to aid, assist, relieve, and deliver 
them in every moment of their surprizals, fears, 
and dangers, in every trial or duty they may be 
called unto, in every difficulty they have to conflict 
withal. And to expect these things any other- 
wise than by virtue of his divine nature, is wofully 
to deceive our own souls. For this is the work of 
God. Heb. vii. 25. Rev. i. IS. ii. 26, 27. 

The revelation made of Christ in the blessed 
gospel is far more glorious, more excellent, and 
more filled with rays of divine wisdom and good- 
ness, than the whole creation, and the just com- 
prehension of it attainable, can contain or afford. 
Without the knowledge hereof, the mind of man, 
however priding itself in other inventions and dis- 
coveries, is wrapped up in darkness and confusion. 
John xrii. 3. Owex. 

The humbling our souls before the Lord Christ 
from an apprehension of his divine excellencies, 
the ascription of glory, honour, and praise, with 
thanksgiving, unto Him on the great motive of 



60 DIVINITY AND GLOUY OF CHRIST. 

the work of redemption, with the blessed effects 
thereof, are things wherein the life of faith is con- 
tinually exercised ; nor can we have any evidence 
of an interest in that blessedness which consists in 
the eternal assignation of all glory and praise unto 
Him in heaven, if we are not exercised unto this 
worship of Him here on earth, (Isa. vi. 3. Rev. 
v. 9 — 13.) They who desire not to behold the 
glory of Christ in this world, shall never behold 
Him in glory hereafter unto their satisfaction; nor 
do they desire so to do : only they suppose it a 
part of that relief which they would have when 
they are gone out of this world. For what should 
beget such a desire in them ? Nothing can do it 
but some view of it here by faith, which they de- 
spise or totally neglect. Every pretence of a 
desire of heaven, and of the presence of Christ 
therein, that doth not arise from, that is not 
resolved into, that prospect which we have of the 
glory of Christ in this world by faith, is mere 
fancy and imagination. 2 Cor. iii. 18. iv. 18. 

Ibid. 

The sun seems less than the wheel of a chariot, 
but reason teaches the Philosopher, that he is 



DIVINITY AND GLORY OF CHRIST. 



61 



much bigger than the whole earth ; and the cause 
that he seeins so little is his great distance. The 
naturally wise man is equally deceived by his car- 
nal reason in his estimate of Jesus Christ, the sun 
of righteousness ; and the cause is the same, his 
great distance from Him. Leighton. 

If Christ be only a man, how is He every where 
present, since He is to be every where invoked ? 
To be every where present is the attribute not of 
man but of God. If Christ be only a man, why 
is He invoked in prayer as a Mediator, since the 
invoking of a man is considered of no utility to 
salvation : If He be only a man, why is hope 
reproved in him, since hope in man is said to be 
accursed ? Xavatiax. 

Blessed Jesus ! we can add nothing to thee, 
nothing to thy glory ; but it is a joy of heart unto 
us that thou art what thou art, that thou art so 
gloriously exalted at the right hand of God ; and 
we do long more fully and clearly to behold that 
glory, according to thy prayer and promise. John 
xvii, 24. Owen. 

Then do we find food for our souls in the word 
of truth, then do we taste how gracious the Lord 

G 



62 DIVININY AND GLORY OF CHRIST. 



is therein ; then is the scripture full of refresh- 
ment to us, as a spring of living water, when we 
are taken into a blessed view of the glory of Christ 
therein. This is the glory of the scripture, that it 
is the great, the only outward means of represent- 
ing unto us the glory of Christ : and He is the 
Sun in the firmament thereof, which only hath 
light in itself, and communicates it to all other 
things besides. John i. 9. v. 39. Col. i. 15 — 
19. Ibid. 

In the present beholding the glory of Christ, 
the life and power of faith are most eminently 
acted : and from this exercise of faith doth love 
unto Christ principally (if not solely) arise and 
spring. If therefore we desire to have faith in its 
vigour, or love in its power, giving rest, compla- 
cency, and satisfaction to our own souls, we are to 
seek for them in the diligent discharge of this 
duty ; elsewhere they will not be found. Herein 
would I live, herein would I die ; herein would I 
dwell in my thoughts and affections, to the wither- 
ing and consumption of all the painted beauties of 
this world, unto the crucifying all things here 
below, until they become unto me a dead and 



DIVINITY AND GLORY OF CHRIST. 63 

deformed thing, no way meet for affectionate 
embraces. Phil. iii. 7 — 10. Ibid. 

Are we prizing Jesus Christ every moment ? 
Are we trying to learn this lesson, dependence on 
an incarnate God ? Independence is the spirit of 
the devil, full of pride. Bring down the monster 
pride, and you destroy the works of the devil. 
Every thing proclaims the Deity of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. By him all things consist. He assumes 
to himself the glory of the divine essence, and 
receives from his followers divine worship. He is 
the I AM. No being but one can sustain this 
glorious name. 'I am not/ suits all created being, 
even in heaven above — it suits all there but One. 
Justice once took her stand at the bar of truth — 
her voice immediately flew through heaven, earth, 
and hell, to cite witnesses to attest the glories of 
the Son of God. Infinite and finite being were 
summoned, and all obeyed. Angels descend from 
heaven to proclaim Messiah. ' Unto you is born 
this day, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.' 
Devils proclaim Messiah. ' What have we to do 
with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God ?' Enemies as 
well as friends proclaim him. ' I find no fault in 



64 DIVINITY AND GLORY OF CHRIST. 



him at all,' said Pilate. ' Truly,' said the Centu- 
rion, ' this was the Son of God.' Ask the water 
what it thinks of Jesus. It blushes itself into wine 
in the presence of its God ; it changes itself into 
adamant to form a pathway for the ' Most High- 
est/ Ask the earth. The grave shakes death 
into life to sympathize with Jesus. Ask the sun. 
He puts on the robes of mourning for his mur- 
dered Lord. Ask the testimony of God himself ; 
( This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
pleased.' Heaven, earth, and hell, once, and once 
only, united in their testimony — they proclaim 
that Christ is God. Howels. 



ON THE PRECIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 65 



CHAPTER VII. 

ON THE PRECIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 

The comfort of a Christian lyeth not in his own 
fulness, but in Christ's. John i. 16. Phil. iv. 13. 

T. Cole. 

In the name of Jesus the whole gospel lies hid ; 
this name is the light, food, and medicine of the 
soul. Song i. 3. Glassius. 

Job was happier on the dunghill than Adam in 
paradise, (Job xix. 25 — 27. Psalm xlix. 20.) 
O how happily did I fall in Adam, who, after my 
fall, arose more happily in Christ. Rom. v. 17 — 
19. Augustine. 

There are no saving views of God but in Christ, 
and there are no gracious views God hath of men 
but in Christ. If we look on God out of Christ, 
we are dazzled with an overwhelming, confound- 



66 ON THE PRECIOUSNESS OP CHRIST. 



ing Majesty ; if God look on us out of Christ, he 
seeth hateful and hated sinners. Eph. ii. 12—14. 

Trail. 

The Lord Jesus Christ is such a Saviour as 
became the grace, mercy, love, wisdom, holiness, 
righteousness, justice, and power of God to pro- 
vide ; and on the other hand, such a Saviour as 
became sinners needs and desires, and therefore 
deserves their acceptance, as fit, suitable, sufficient 
to save all that come to God through him, and 
that even to the utmost ; his blood being able to 
cleanse from all sin, his power being able to sub- 
due all things to himself, and his Spirit sufficient 
to lead into all truth. Psalm lxxxix. 19. John 
xvi. 13. Halyburton. 

All my hope as to freedom from that darkness 
which is my burden, is from Christ's prophetical 
office, and my hope of freedom from the guilt, 
pollution, and power of sin, and acceptation of 
God, arises from his kingly and priestly offices. 
In one word, I have no hopes of any mercy, in 
time or eternity, but only through Him : it is 
through Him I expect all, from the least drop of 



ON THE PRECIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 



67 



water to the iminense riches of glory. Luke xxiv. 
45. 1 Cor. viii. 6. Heb. ix. 28. Ibid. 

Two things may quiet any man's conscience 
under the greatest guilt. 1. Is there not a suffi- 
cient sacrifice ? is there not satisfaction and atone- 
ment in the blood of Christ ? is not this a sufficient 
sacrifice ? 2. Is it not thine ? This I know, 
unbelief is apt to stagger at ; but therefore do but 
lay thy hand upon the head of the sacrifice, con- 
fess thy sins over the head of thy burnt-offering, 
lay thy burdens upon Him by faith, and He is 
thine, and all that He hath done and suffered was 
for thee, and shall be as effectual for thy good, as 
available and effectual with the Lord for thee, as if 
thou thyself hadst suffered, yea, infinitely more. 
Lev. i. 4. Rom. viii. 1. John vi. 35 — 37. 
x. 27 — 29. S. Mather. 

The law presseth on a man till he flies to 
Christ ; then it says, thou hast gotten a refuge, I 
forbear to follow thee : thou art wise ; thou art 
safe. Gal. hi. 13, 24. Bengelius. 

No comfortable, refreshing thoughts of God, 
no warrantable or acceptable boldness in an ap- 
proach and access unto Him, can any one enter- 

g 4 



68 ON THE PRECIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 



tain or receive, but in the exercise of faith on 
Christ as the Mediator between God and man. 
And if, in the practice of religion, this regard of 
faith unto Him, this acting of faith on God through 
Him, be not the principle whereby the whole is 
animated and guided, Christianity is renounced, 
and the vain cloud of natural religion embraced in 
the room of it. Not a verbal mention of Him, but 
the real intention of heart to come unto God 
through Him, is required of us ; and therein all 
expectation of acceptance with God, as unto our 
persons or duties, is resolved. Gal. ii. 20. Eph. 
ii. 18. Owen. 

Our faith, our repentance, our obedience, being 
sinfully defective, cannot, as such, make any thing 
due to us but punishment, and so cannot oblige the 
Lord to perform the promises to justify, pardon, 
or save us ; for that which obliges the Lord to 
execute the threatening cannot oblige him to fulfil 
his promise. How then is the Lord obliged ? how 
come the promises to be accomplished ? Not 
upon the account of our defective performances, 
but for Christ's sake, and so through grace. 
Ezek. xxxvi. 22, 32. Clarkson. 



ON THE FRECIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 69 

Is Christ God's beloved, with and in whom he 
is well pleased ? And is he not thy beloved ? 
What is the matter ? Is thy narrow soul more 
curious about an object of his love than God him- 
self is ? O let him be to each of us our beloved ! 
If He be God's beloved, He may as well be thine. 
Is He able to satisfy God's vast thoughts, and is 
He not able to satisfy thee, poor creature ? God 
himself is satisfied and at rest in Him. Says 
Christ, (Prov. viii. 30.) I was daily his delight, 
And wouldst thou be happier than God is ? Is he 
God's beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased ? 
and wilt thou be pleased in any thing but Christ ? 
Psalm lxxiii. 25. Phil. iii. 8. Goodwin. 

By raising any soul from a death in sin, God 
doth evidence the particular value of Christ's blood 
for that soul ; as He did, in raising Christ, evi- 
dence the general fulness of that satisfaction. 
And this He will do even unto the end of the 
world. All his grace in all ages, even to the end 
of the world, shall run through this channel, to 
put credit and honour upon Christ. Now, the 
the greater the sin that is pardoned, and the 
greater the sinner that is converted, the more it 



70 ON THE PRECIOUSMESS OP CHRIST,, 

shews the sufficiency of the price Christ paid, 
] Cor. vi. 20. Rev. v. 9. Charnock. 

See to whom you are beholden for your lives, 
liberties, comforts, and all that you enjoy in this 
world. Is it not Christ who orders all for you ? 
He indeed is in heaven, out of your sight ; but 
though you see Him not, He sees you, and takes 
care of all your concerns. In all thy ways ac- 
knowledge Him. (Prov. iii. 6.) It is He that 
hath espied out that state thou art in, as most 
proper for thee. It is Christ that hath done all 
for thee that is done. He looks down from 
heaven upon all that fear Him. He sees when 
you are in danger by temptation, and casts in a 
providence (you know not how) to hinder it. He 
sees when you are sad, and orders reviving provi- 
dences to refresh you. He sees when corruptions 
prevail, and orders humbling providences to purge 
them : whatever mercies you have received, al 
along the way you have gone hitherto, are the 
orderings of Christ for you. 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. 
Psalm xxxvii. 23, Jer. x. 23. 2 Chron. xvi. 9. 

Flavel. 

Believers are righteous men ; and it is their 



ON THE PRECIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 71 

justice to be glad, and triumph in their victory- 
over death. Justice witholds not what is due, 
when it is in the power of its hand to pay ; to re- 
pay vengeance to evildoers, and praise to them 
that do well. Death and its accomplices, the law, 
sin, Satan, and hell, are enemies that have tragi- 
cally used believers, made them to bear God 
knows what, shamed them, and tempted them to 
curse the day of their birth, held them subject to 
bondage through fear all the time they lay under 
their power. An holy revenge is now owing to 
sin and to Satan ; and now that through Christ 
they are taken out of those cruel hands, they are 
able to pay it ; able to expose them and to put 
them to open shame ; to shew abroad how they 
themselves have been used by one mightier than 
they ; how the law, as damning, is abolished; sin 
is condemned, Satan's head is bruised, death is 
plagued, the grave is destroyed, and hell hath its 
mouth stopped. Hos. xiii. 14. Rom. vi. 6. 
vii. 4, 24, 25. viii. 3. 1 Cor. xv. 54, 57. 

Burgess. 

Whatever notional knowledge men may have of 
divine truths, as they are doctrinally proposed in 



72 



ON THE PRECIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 



the scripture, yet if they know them not in their 
respect unto the person of Christ, as the founda- 
tion of the counsels of God ; if they discern not 
how they proceed from Him, and center in Him, 
they will bring no saving, spiritual light unto their 
understandings. For all spiritual life and light is 
in Him, and from Him alone. John i. 4, 8, 12. 
ix. 5, Owen. 

The flesh and Christ offer for the will, who 
shall carry it. Pleasures, profits, riches, honours, 
are the great things, with liberty and ease from 
trouble, which flesh doth offer for the will. Yea, 
saith Christ, but who shall save thee from that 
wrath that is coming on thee, and which now 
thou art sensible will befal thee, for being a slave 
to thy lusts, to the flesh, to the creatures so long ? 
that wrath being infinitely more evil, than is that 
good which flesh offers thee. I offer thee deliver- 
ance from wrath to come. This is fair bidding 
for the will, that lyeth under fears of that wrath, 
if God cut asunder the thread of life. But if this 
be only privative, and you must have positive good 
to fill your hungry appetite, let flesh offer ; flesh 
offers fair promises, and what it doth is more by 



ON THE PRFXIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 73 

promises than performances. Christ who is the 
yea and amen of all promises, He offers exceeding 
great and precious promises, and will perform all 
to a word, as He did to Israel, (Josh, xxiii. 14.) 
Flesh offers pleasures : Christ offers redemption 
from fleshly pleasures; thy soul shall not any more 
be a slave to them ; I will make thee free indeed ; 
thou shalt feel what a pleasure it will be to have 
these chains taken off; and to be above thy lusts ; 
thou shalt drink of the river of my pleasures, even 
the pleasures of my love and grace ; stay but 
a- while with patience, and pleasures for evermore. 
Flesh bids ease and liberty from trouble : Christ 
bids peace in conscience, peace in heaven, pardon 
in bosom, (John xiv. 27.) Flesh bids riches : 
Christ bids unsearchable riches. Flesh bids the 
love and favour of great persons : Christ bids the 
love of the Father and his love ; and, to beat flesh 
quite out, saith God, I give thee myself, T give 
thee my Christ : whatever flesh bids is but tempo- 
rary ; what I bid is eternal. The soul, being 
under the work of the Spirit, is enlightened to see 
and understand these things, and the glory and 
the good of them ; and thus the Lord carries away 

H 



74 ON THE PRECIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 



the will in triumph ; he hath outbid the flesh . The 
blessed angels rejoice at this work ; there is joy in 
the presence of the angels of God over one sinner 
that repenteth. But what hast Thou gotten, sweet 
Saviour, that Thou art so pleased in thy victory ? 
What ! I have gotten thy will. A huge booty, 
Lord, not worth the taking up, nor worth one 
thousandth part of what Thou hast offered to win 
it ; Thou hast but pulled trouble upon thyself in 
getting it : now Thou hast a sinful, wretched, 
guilty, peevish, froward, polluted wretch to pardon, 
to cleanse, and to take care of ; one that will try 
thy patience : small reason that Thou shouldst tri- 
umph in thy winnings. Well, be it so, yet my 
Father hath the glory of his mercy and grace ; I 
have the glory of my love and redemption, T see 
of the travel of my soul and am satisfied, (Isa. liii. 
11.) To eternity then let thy Father's grace and 
mercy be adored, thy love and redemption be ad- 
mired. Luke xv. 10. Firmin. 



ON" LOVE TO CHRIST. 



75 



CHAPTER VIII. 

OX LOVE TO CHRIST. 

Love, by nature, when it seeth, cannot but cast 
out its spirit and strength upon amiable objects, 
and things love-worthy. And what fairer things 
than Christ ! fair sun, and fair moon, and fair 
stars, and fair flowers, and fair roses, and fair 
creatures ! but O ten thousand thousand times 
fairer Lord Jesus ! Alas ! I wronged Him in 
making comparison this way. O black sun and 
moou, but O fair Lord Jesus ! O black flowers, 
and black lilies, and black roses ; but O fair, fair, 
for ever fair Lord Jesus ! O all fair things, black, 
deformed, and without beauty, when ye are set 
beside the fairest Lord Jesus ! O black heavens, 
but O fair Christ ! O black angels, but O sur- 
passingly fair Lord Jesus ! Song v. 10 — 16. 
Psalm xlv. 2. Rutherfoord, 



76 



ON LOVE TO CHRIST., 



That love is not sincere which proceedeth not 
from, which is not a fruit of faith : those who do 
not first really believe on Christ can never sin- 
cerely love Him : it is faith alone that worketh by 
love towards Christ and all his saints. If there- 
fore any do not believe with that faith which 
unites them to Christ, which within purifies the 
heart, and is outwardly effectual in duties of obe- 
dience, whatever they may persuade themselves 
concerning love unto Christ, it is but a vain delu- 
sion. Where the faith of men is dead, their love 
will not be living and sincere. John xiv. 15. 
1 Pet. i. 8. Owen. 

Love works by admiration. That is the voice 
of love. (Zech. ix. 17.) How great is his beauty ! 
How great is his goodness ! The soul, being as 
it were ravished with that view which it hath of 
the glorious excellencies of God in Christ, hath no 
way to express its affections but by admiration, 
How great is his goodness ! How great is his 
beauty ! And this beauty of God is that sweet- 
ness and holy symmetry of glory in all the perfec- 
tions of God, being all in a sweet correspondency 
exalted in Christ, who is the proper object of our 



ON LOVE TO CHRIST. 



77 



love. To see infinite holiness, purity, and right- 
eousness, with infinite love, goodness, grace, and 
mercy, all equally glorified in and towards the 
same things and persons, one glimpse whereof is 
not to be attained in the world out of Christ, is 
that beauty of God which attracts the love of a 
believing soul, and fills it with an holy admiration 
of Him. Psalm lxxxv. 10. Luke i. 46, 68, 78. 
John i. 14. Ibid. 

Love enlarges the heart to Christ, and every 
thing of Christ ; valuation, delight, satisfaction, 
accompany it ; it makes the heart free, noble, 
ready for service, compassionate, zealous. To 
think of glorifying God without our hearts Warmed, 
enlarged, made tender, compassionate by gospel 
love, is to think to fly without wings, or to walk 
without feet. What day, almost what business, 
wherein our love is not put to the trial in all the 
properties of it ; whether it can bear and forbear, 
whether it can pity and relieve, whether it can hope 
all things, believe all things ; whether it can exercise 
itself towards friends and towards enemies, whether 
it can give allowance for men's weakness and tempt- 
ations; whether it can value Christ above all, 



78 



ON LOVE TO CHRIST. 



and rejoice in Him in the loss of all ; and many 
the like things it is continually tried withal, (Hab. 
iii. 17, 18.) Now nothing so contracts and 
withers the heart, as to all these things, as the 
cares of this world do. 1 Cor. xiii. 4 — 7, 13. 
Col. iii. 1, 2, 12, 13. 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10. 1 Pet. 
ii. 5 — 8. Ibid. 

Hath he the heart of a Christian who doth not 
often meditate on the death of his Saviour, who 
doth not derive his life from it ? Who can look 
into the gospel and not fix on those lines which 
either immediately and directly, or through some 
other paths of divine grace and wisdom, do lead 
him thereunto ? Can any have believing thoughts 
concerning the death of Christ, and not have his 
heart affected with ardent love unto his person ? 
Christ in the gospel is evidently set forth crucified 
before us. Can any by the eye of faith look on 
this blessed dying Redeemer, and suppose love 
unto his person to be nothing but the work of 
fancy or imagination ? They know the contrary 
who always bear about in the body the dying of 
the Lord Jesus, as the apostle speaks, (2 Cor. iv. 
10.) As his whole name, in all that He did, is as 



ON LOVE TO CHRIST. 



7.9 



ointment poured forth ; for which the virgins love 
Him, (Song i. 3.) so this precious perfume of his 
death is that wherewith their hearts are ravished 
in a peculiar manner. 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. 1 Cor. 
ii. 2. Ibid. 

No man can set his affections on things here 
below who hath any regard to the pattern of 
Christ, or is in any measure influenced with the 
power and efficacy of his cross. My love is cruci- 
fied, said an holy martyr of old. He whom his 
soul loved was so, and in Him his love to all 
things here below. Do you therefore find your 
affections ready to be engaged unto, or too much 
entangled with the things of this world ; are your 
desires of increasing them, your hopes of keeping 
them, your fears of losing them, your love unto 
them, your delight in them, operative in your 
minds, possessing your thoughts, and influencing 
your conversation ? Turn aside a little, and by 
faith contemplate the life and death of the Son of 
God : a blessed glass will it be, where you may 
see what contemptible things they are which you 
perplex yourselves about. O that any of us should 
love or esteem the things of this world, the power ? 

h 4 



80 



ON LOVE TO CHRIST. 



riches, goods or reputation of it, who have had a 
spiritual view of them in the cross of Christ ! 
Gal. v. 24. vi. 14. Col. iii. 1. Ibid. 

How should we but love that God, and love that 
Christ, who first and freely loved us ! God loved 
us before we loved him, for he loved us in eternity 
before all worlds. Surely then we are bound to 
love him first and above all things. As the dia- 
mond formeth and fashioneth the diamond, so love 
formeth and fashioneth love ; or as fire converteth 
fuel into fire, so this ancient love of God and 
Christ may well cause our love again. O Christ, 
didst thou not love us ? Who doubts it, that but 
reads over the project, counsel, foreknowledge, 
purpose, and covenant of God and Christ ? "Who 
doubts it, that but reads the eternal design of God, 
that Christ should go out of himself, and suffer an 
ecstacy through the vehemency of his love ; that 
Christ should so far abase his majesty, as to die for 
us, that we might not die, but live with him ? O 
then, how should this but kindle in our hearts a 
most ardent love towards God and Christ ! 

Ambrose. 



ON LIKENESS TO CHRIST, 



81 



CHAPTER IX. 

ON LIKENESS TO CHRIST. 

He that loves God sincerely will be like him. 
1 John iv. 11. Owen. 

He that loves Jesus Christ most, is most like 
unto God. John xvi. 27. Ibid. 

Internal conformity unto the habitual grace and 
holiness of Christ, is the fundamental design of a 
Christian life. Rom. viii. 29. xii. 2. 1 Pet. ii. 
22. Ibid. 

A Godlike man is the only Godly man ; a 
Christlike nature brought into the soul doth only 
denominate a man a true Christian. Phil. ii. 5. 
1 Pet. iv. 1. Shaw. 

Those graces of holiness have the most evident 
and legible characters of electing love upon them 
which are most effectual in working us unto a con- 
formity to Christ. That grace is certainly from 



ON LIKENESS TO CHRIST. 



an eternal spring which makes us like unto Jesus 
Christ. Of this sort are meekness, humility? 
patience, self-denial, contempt of the world, 
readiness to pass by wrongs, to forgive enemies, 
to love and to do good unto alL Phil. ii. 4 — 6, 
&c. Owen. 

The life of God in us, consists in conformity to 
Christ ; nor is the Holy Spirit, as the principal 
and efficient cause of it, given to us for any other 
end but to unite us to Him and make us like Him ! 
Wherefore the original gospel duty, which ani- 
mates and rectifies all others, is a design for con- 
formity to Christ in all the gracious principles and 
qualifications of his holy soul, wherein the image 
of God in Him doth consist. His meekness, low- 
liness of mind, condescension unto all sorts of 
persons, his love and kindness to mankind, his 
readiness to do good to all, with patience and for- 
bearance, are continually set before us in his 
example. With respect unto them it is required, 
that the same mind be in us that was in Christ 
Jesus, and that we walk in love, as He also loved 
us. Eph. v. 2. Phil. ii. 5. Rom. viii. 29. Ibid. 

To believe in Christ for redemption, for justfi- 



ON LIKENESS TO CHRIST. 83 

cation, for sanctification, is but one half of the 
duty of faith. It respects Christ only as He died 
and suffered for us, as He made atonement for 
our sins, peace with God, and reconciliation for 
us, as his righteousness is imputed to us unto jus- 
tification. Unto these ends He is indeed firstly 
and principally proposed unto us in the gospel ; 
and with respect unto them we are exhorted to 
receive Him and to believe in Him. But this is 
not all that is required of us. Christ in the gos- 
pel is proposed unto us as our pattern and example 
of holiness. And as it is a cursed imagination 
that this was the whole end of his life and death, 
namely, to exemplify and confirm the doctrine of 
holiness which He preached ; so to neglect his 
being our example, in considering Him by faith 
unto that end, and labouring after conformity to 
Him, is evil and pernicious. Wherefore let us be 
much in contemplation of what He was, what He 
did, how in all instances of duties and trials He 
carried himself, until an image or idea of his per- 
fect holiness is implanted in our minds, and we 
are made like unto Him thereby. 1 Pet. ii. 21. 
1 John iv. 11. Heb. xii. 3. John xiii. 14. 

Ibid. 



84 



ON HOLINESS., 



CHAPTER X. 

ON HOLINESS. 

By the death of Christ we are greatly stirred up, 
both to a caution against, and a detestation of sin; 
for that must needs be deadly which could be 
healed no other way than by the death of Christ. 
Who therefore, seriously considering that his sins 
could be no other ways expiated than by the death 
of the Son of God himself, would not tremble to 
tread as it were this most precious blood under 
foot by daily sinning ! 2 Cor. v. 14. 1 Peter i. 
19. Heb. ix. 14, 28. x. 4, 5. Davenant. 

Justification through the blood of Christ is ever 
accompanied with sanctifi cation by his Spirit ; 
therefore, if the Spirit of God be working and 
burning in thy heart, fear not, thou art washed in 
the chrystal sea which is before the throne : if 
sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, thou art justified 
by his blood. 1 Cor. i. 30. S. Mather. 



OX HOLINESS. 



85 



He that hath the strongest faith, he that be- 
lieves in the greatest degree the promise of pardon 
and the remission of sins, I dare boldly say he 
hath the holiest heart and the holiest life. Col. i. 
10. Jam. ii. 18. Eph. ii. 10. Preston. 

Holiness in this life is absolutely necessary to 
salvation, not only as a means to the end, but by a 
nobler kind of necessity, as part of the end itself. 
Though we are not saved by good works as pro- 
curing causes, yet we are saved to good works, as 
fruits and effects of saving grace, which God hath 
prepared that we should walk in them, (Eph. ii. 
10.) It is indeed one part of our salvation to be 
delivered from the bondage of the covenant of 
works ; but the end of this is, not that we may 
have liberty to sin, (which is the worst of slavery) 
but that we may fulfil the royal law of liberty, and 
that we may serve in newness of spirit, and not in 
the oldness of the letter, (Gal. iii. 13.) Yea, 
holiness in this life is such a part of our salvation 
as is a necessary means to make us meet to be 
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in 
heavenly light and glory. Without holiness we 
can never see God, and are as unfit for the Glori- 

i 



86 



ON HOLINESS. 



ous Presence as swine for the presence-chamber of 
an earthly prince. Heb. xii. 14. Marshal. 

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
God, (Matt. v. 8.) and without holiness no man 
shall see God, (Heb. xii. 14.) No gifts, no duties, 
no natural endowments, will evidence a right in 
heaven ; but the least measure of true holiness 
will secure heaven to the soul. As holiness is the 
soul's best evidence for heaven, so it is a continued 
spring of comfort to it in the way thither. The 
purest and the sweetest pleasures in this world are 
the results of holiness. Till we come to live holily, 
we never live comfortably. Heaven is epitomized 
in holiness. And, to say no more, it is the pecu- 
liar mark by which God hath visibly distinguished 
his own from other men, (Psalm iv„ 3.) the Lord 
hath set apart him that is godly for Himself. As 
if He had said, This is the man, and that the 
woman, to whom I intend to be good for ever : 
this is a man for me. O holiness, how surpass- 
ingly glorious art thou ! Psalm 1. 2. Ixiv. 10. 
xcvii. 11, 12. Flavel. 

It is often and truly spoken unto, how men 
may have their minds enlightened, their affections 



ON HOLINESS. 



87 



Wrought upon, and their lives much changed, and 
vet come short of true holiness. The best trial of 
this work is by its universality with respect unto 
its subject. If any thing remain un sanctified in 
us, sin mav there set up its throne and maintain 
its sovereignty ; but where this work is true and 
real, however weak and imperfect it may be as 
unto its degrees, yet it possesseth the whole per- 
son, and leaveth not the least hold unto sin, 
wherein it doth not continually combat and con- 
flict with it. There is saving light in the mind, 
and life in the will, and love in the affections, and 
grace in the conscience, suited to its nature : there 
is nothing in us whereunto the power of holiness 
doth not reach according to its measures. 1 Thess. 
v. 23. Eph. iv. 13. Psalm cxix. 6. Owex. 

If we design to be holy, let us constantly in our 
families towards our relations, in churches, in our 
conversations in the w orld, and dealings with men, 
all men, toward our enemies and persecutors, the 
worst of them, towards all mankind as we have 
opportunity, labour after a conformity unto God, 
and to express our likeness unto Him in this 
philanthropy, goodness, benignity, condescension, 



88 



ON HOLINESS. 



readiness to forgive, help, and relieve ; without 
which we neither are nor can be the children of 
our Father which is in heaven. Matt. v. 44, 45. 
Luke x. 33, 37. 1 Peter i. 15, 16. Owen. 

They are said to keep his testimonies who seek 
Him with the whole heart. Set the best saints 
hands at work, and they shall fall short in many 
degrees ; but set the heart on work, and it inwardly 
intends all : it has a will for all. It is impossible 
by any outward act to do this : with my mind I 
serve the law of God ; but, when I come to put 
this in act, my good works are infinitely short of 
what my sincerity aims at ; I can never be so 
holy outwardly as inwardly I would be. This is 
the nature of sincerity, that it falls in with all the 
will of God, begs that every tittle of the will of 
God may be written in the soul and expressed in 
the life. Psalm cxix. 10. Rom. vii. 22, 25. 

T. Cole. 

There never was by any, nor ever can be, any 
act or duty of true holiness performed, where 
there was not, in order of nature antecedently, an 
habit of holiness in the persons by whom they 
are performed. Many acts and duties, for the 



ON HOLINESS. 



89 



substance of them good and approveable, may be 
performed without it ; but no one that hath the 
proper form and nature of holiness can be so. 
And the reason is, because every act of true holi- 
ness must have something supernatural in it, from 
an internal, renewed principle of grace : and that 
which hath not so, be it otherwise what it will, is 
no act or duty of true holiness. This is fully ex- 
pressed, (Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27. 'A new heart 
will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within 
vou, and cause vou to walk in mv statutes ; and 
ye shall keep my judgments and do them.' The 
whole of all that actual obedience, and all those 
duties of holiness which God requireth of us, is 
contained in these expressions ; f Ye shall walk in 
my statutes, and keep my judgments and do them/ 
Antecedent hereunto, and as the principle and 
cause thereof, God gives a new heart and a new 
spirit : this new heart is a heart with the law of 
God written in it ; and this new spirit is the habit- 
ual inclination of that heart unto the life of God, 
or all duties of obedience. Jer. xxxi. 31 — 34. 

Owen. 

The sufferings and obedience of Christ, afford 



90 



ON HOLINESS. 



the highest motives to dissuade from sin and press 
to holiness, and lay a man under an infinite obli- 
gation in point of gratitude to live unto God. 
That very grace, which enables him to believe in 
Christ, equally inclines him to love God. A for- 
mal act of saving faith includes in it a desire of 
holiness^ and purpose of using all proper means to 
attain it, and by the grace of God to live holily. 
For it is impossible for a man acting rationally, to 
go to Christ and his righteousness for a right to 
pardon and life, without a sincere desire of that 
life which consists in holiness here as its begin- 
ning, and glory in heaven as its consummation. 
1 Pet. i. 8. 1 John i. 6. ii. 3. iii. 23. Glascock. 

Hast thou, O Lord, from eternity had thoughts 
of glorifying me a poor miserable man, who am 
less than nothing ? and shall not I again always 
carry thee in my eyes and in my bosom ! shall 
not I be delighted in meditating on thee ! shall 
not I cry out, ' How precious are thy thoughts 
also unto me, O God ! how great is the sum of 
them !' (Psalm cxxxix. 17.) Shall not I be 
affected with most sincere repentance of that time 
wherein so many hours, days, weeks, months, and 



OX HOLINESS. 



91 



years, have passed me, wherein I never had a 
holv, pleasant thought of thee ! Hast thou out of 
mere love chosen me to salvation, and shall not I 
again choose Thee for my Lord, my King, my 
Spouse, the peculiar One of my soul, my chief or 
rather my only delight ! Hast thou chosen me 
out of so many others, who being left to them- 
selves, eternal destruction abides them ; and shall 
I not with my utmost power endeavour to shine 
before others in love, in thy worship, and in all 
duties of holiness ! Hast thou predestinated me 
to holiness, so lovely in itself, so necessary for me, 
as that without it there is no salvation ; and shall 
not I walk therein ! Shall I presume so to sophis- 
ticate with thee, O thou brightest teacher of truth, 
that, separating the end from the means, I shall 
securely promise to myself the end, as being pre- 
destinated thereto, in a neglect of the means, to 
which I am no less predestinated ! Is thy pur- 
pose concerning my salvation fixed and immove- 
able ; and shall I every hour be changed, now for 
thee, now again giving up my service to Satan ! 
Shall not I rather with so firm purpose adhere to 
thee, that I should rather suffer a thousand deaths 

i 4 



92 



ON HOLINESS. 



than perfidiously depart from thee ! Shall I not 
be stedfast, immoveable, always abounding in the 
work of the Lord, knowing that my labour is not 
in vain in the Lord ! (1 Cor. xv. 58.) Wilt thou 
make me assured of thy love, which passeth all 
understanding ; and shall not I again love thee 
with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my 
strength ! Wilt thou assure me of my salvation ; 
and shall not I, having this hope, purify myself 
even as thou art pure ! 1 John hi. 3. 

Who, understanding these things, will deny 
that the doctrine of election supplies to the pious 
soul plenty of matter for such and the like medita- 
tions ? and who will deny that in the practice of 
such meditations lies the very kernel of all holiness 
and godliness. 1 Thess. i. 4, 5. 1 Pet. i. 15, 16. 

Witsius. 

Believers as they were in the primitive times 
holy in their lives, so they professed this still to 
be the foundation of their holiness, Christ hath 
died, Christ is risen, Christ is in heaven ; there- 
fore we must live so and so : and this was their 
great profession. It dasheth all the carnal gos- 
pellers in the world. It would shame men out of 



ON HOLINESS. 



93 



their sins, or out of the profession of Christ. If 
Paul were alive, he would spit in any man's face 
that will sav he belie veth in Christ, that died and 
rose again, and yet lived in sin. Rom. vi. 1, 2. 
2 Cor. v. 14, 15. Goodwin. 

The especial procuring cause of this holiness is 
the meditation of Christ. We are not in this 
matter concerned in any thing, let men call it 
what they please, virtue, holiness, or godliness, 
that hath not a special relation unto the Lord 
Christ and his mediation. Evangelical holiness is 
purchased for us by Him according to the tenor of 
the everlasting covenant, is promised unto us on 
his account, actually obtained for us by his inter- 
cession, and communicated to us by his Spirit. 
And hereby we do not only cast off all the moral 
virtues of the heathens from having the least con- 
cernment herein, but all the principles and duties 
of persons professing Christianity, who are not 
actually and really implanted into Christ. For 
He it is who of God is made unto us sanctiflca- 
tion. 1 Cor. i. 30. John xv. 5. Luke xxii. 32. 

Owen. 

Nothing less than the entire renovation of the 



94 



ON HOLINESS. 



image of God in our souls will constitute us evan- 
gelically holy. No series of obediential actings, 
no observance of religious duties, no attendance 
unto actions among men as morally virtuous and 
useful, how exact soever they may be, or how con- 
stant soever we may be unto them ; will ever 
render us lovely or holy in the sight of God, unless 
they all proceed from the renovation of the image 
of God in us, or that habitual principle of spiritual 
life and power which renders us conformable unto 
Him. Rom. xii. 2. Col. iii. 10. Ibid. 

Whatever we do of ourselves, in answer to our 
convictions, is a covering, not a cleansing : and if 
we die in this condition, unwashed, uncleansed, 
unpurified, it is utterly impossible that ever we 
should be admitted into the blessed presence of 
the holy God, (Rev. xxi. 27.) Let no man de- 
ceive you with vain words. It is not the doing a 
few good works, it is not an outward profession of 
religion, that will give you an access with joy unto 
God. Shame will cover you when it will be too 
late. Unless you are washed by the Spirit of God, 
and in the blood of Christ, from the pollutions of 
your natures, you shall not inherit the kingdom of 



OX HOLIXESS 



95 



God, (1 Cor. vi. 9 — 11.) Yea, you will be an 
horrid spectacle unto saints and angels., yea, to 
yourselves, to one another, when the shame of 
your nakedness shall be made to appear. If 
therefore you would not perish, and that eternally; 
if you would not perish as base, denied creatures, 
an abhorring unto all flesh, then, when your pride, 
and your wealth, and your beauty, and your orna- 
ments, and your duties, will stand in no stead : 
look out betimes after that only way of purifying 
and cleansing your souls which God hath ordained. 
Heb. ix. 22. 1 John i. 7. 1 Pet. i. IS, 19. 

OwEX. 

All that antinomianism which the orthodox 
preachers of free grace are falsely charged with 
lies here, because they maintain that the first 
thing a convinced sinner is to eye, in his turning 
to God, is the free grace and mercy of God in 
Christ for the pardon of sin. Evangelical convic- 
tion leads him to a reliance upon Christ in some 
degree of saving faith for the pardon of all his 
sins, and this faith begets in him a secret hope of 
pardon, and is the spring of all after- sanctih* cation, 
viz. of mortification of sin, of repentance, and of 



96 



ON HOLINESS. 



all new obedience. Let this be remembered, as 
the main thing we contend about, that we begin 
our religion at the grace of God, and do not think 
to ground our faith in Christ upon any legal pre- 
parations or works of our own. Tit. iii. 5, 6. 

T. Cole. 

The doctrine of salvation by sincere obedience, 
that was invented against antinomianism, may 
well be ranked among the worst antinomian errors. 
For my part I hate it with perfect hatred, and 
count it mine enemy, as I have found it to be : 
and I have found, by some good experience, the 
truth of the lesson taught by the apostle, that the 
way to be freed from the mastery and dominion 
of sin, is not to be under the law, but under 
grace. Rom. vi. 15. 2 Cor. v. 14. Marshal. 

The righteousness of Christ imputed to a belie- 
ver, frees him from the obligation of yielding 
obedience to be his justifying righteousness, but 
adds an infinite obligation to obedience in point 
of gratitude ; purchases and procures grace for 
enabling to obey to all the other ends thereof, 
expiates the imperfection of his personal obedience, 
and renders its sincerity acceptable. 1 Pet. ii. 5. 
1 Cor. vi. 20. Glascock. 



ON HUMILITY. 



97 



CHAPTER XI. 

ON HUMILITY. 

It is a sign some beam of heavenly wisdom hath 
shined into that soul, which findeth itself empty 
of true saving wisdom. John xvi. 8, 9. 2 Cor. 
iv. 6. Bajn. 

Lowliness of mind is not a flower that grows 
in the field of nature, but is planted by the finger 
of God in a renewed heart, and learned of the 
lowly Jesus. Matt. xi. 29. Boston. 

It is safer to be humble with one talent, than 
proud with ten, yea, better to be a humble worm, 
than a proud angel. James iv. 6. Prov. xvi. 19. 
xxix. 23. Flavel. 

The vilest thing is sin, the basest thing is a 
sinner ; yea, sinners are not properly creatures of 
God's making, but are vile things of the devil's 
and their own making, the only shameful thing in 

K 



98 



ON HUMILITY, 



God's world . When a sinner hath his eyes 
opened to see himself, he loaths himself, and 
thinks he is enough to pollute and defile and bur- 
den the whole creation of God : he abhors him- 
self, and thinks that every one, especially the 
godly, should abhor him too ; but mainly he thinks 
and judges himself most justly loathsome to God. 
Rom. vii. 24. Psalm xxxviii. 4, 5. Pro v. xxx. 2. 

Trail. 

Who is there that considereth aright the vanity, 
darkness, and ignorance of his mind, the perverse- 
ness and stubbornness of his will, with the disorder, 
irregularity, and distemper of his affections, with 
respect unto things spiritual and heavenly, who is 
not ashamed of, who doth not abhor himself ? 
This is that which hath given our nature its 
leprosy, and defiled it throughout. And he who 
hath no experience of spiritual shame and self- 
abhorrency on account of this inconformity of his 
nature, and the faculties of his soul, unto the 
holiness of God, is a great stranger to the 
whole work of sanctification. Isa. lxiv. 6. 
Dan. ix. 4. Owen. 

Who is there that hath a serious reverence of 



ON HUMILITY. 



99 



God, with any due apprehensions of his holiness, 
and a clear conviction of the evil nature of sin, 
who is not able to call over such actings in child- 
hood (which most think meet to connive at) 
wherein they may remember that perversity 
whereof they are now ashamed ? Job xiii. 26. 
xx. 11. Ibid, 

Every believer's experience witnesseth to this, 
that every one that believes on Jesus Christ, acts 
that faith as the chief of sinners : every man that 
seeth himself rightly thinks so of himself, and 
therein thinks not amiss. God only knows who is 
truly the greatest sinner, and every humbled sinner 
will think he is the man. Prov. xxx. 2. Trail. 

Humility in all things is a necessary consequent 
of a due consideration of God's decree of election. 
For what were we when He set his heart upon us 
to choose us and do us good for ever ? Poor, lost 
undone creatures, that lay perishing under the 
guilt of our apostacy from Him. What did He 
see in us to move Him so to choose us ? Nothing 
but sin and misery. What did he foresee that 
we would do of ourselves more than others, if He 
wrought not in us by his effectual grace? Nothing 



100 



ON HUMILITY, 



but a continuance in sin and rebellion against Him, 
and that for ever. How should the thoughts 
hereof keep our souls in all humility and continual 
self-abasement ! For what have we in or from 
ourselves on the account whereof we should be 
lifted up ? Wherefore, as the elect of God, let us 
put on humility in all things. And there is no 
grace whereby at this day h we may more glorify 
God and the gospel, now the world is sinking into 
ruin under the weight of its own pride. The 
spirits of men, the looks of men, the tongues of 
men, the lives of men, are lifted up by their pride 
unto their destruction. The good Lord keep pro- 
fessors from a share in the pride of these days ! 
Spiritual pride injfoolish self-exalting opinions, 
and the pride of life in the fashions of the world, 
are the poison of this age. Deut. ix. 4, 5. Prov. 
xvi. 19. Ezek. xvi. 6—8. Col. iii. 12. Owen. 

Humility, how acceptable is it to God ! how 
yielding to his command ! God gives grace to it. 
God looks off from heaven and earth to look 
to that man who is of a contrite spirit, and 
trembles at his word. He that is the high and 
lofty One, who dwells in the high and holy place, 



ON HUMILITY, 



101 



and inhabits eternity, will dwell also with the hum- 
ble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, (Isa. 
lvii. 15.) This sorrow hides pride from man, and 
so fits it to all holy returns to God by repentance. 
It withdraws man from his purpose : it changes 
the purpose of man. That which was the full 
purpose of the heart before was to cleave to sin 
and the world : now the heart cleaves to God 
with its full purpose. This humble broken spirit 
is the sacrifice of God, the sacrifice He will not 
despise, because it is ready to yield up itself in all 
obedience to Him. But the sorrow of the world, 
not eying God, nor having regard to Him, never 
changes the heart nor life into obedience unto 
Him, and so leaves a man in the same lost undone 
state, and so becomes desperate sorrow and an- 
guish, as the Scripture calls it, (Isa. viii. 22,) and 
may be most fitly described by (Jer. vi. 28 — 30.) 
' They are all grievous revolters ; they are brass 
and iron ; they are all corrupters ; the bellows are 
burnt, the lead is consumed of the fire, the founder 
melteth in vain ; for the evil of the heart is not 
pulled away : reprobate silver shall men call them, 
because the Lord hath rejected them. 5 When the 



102 



ON HUMILITY. 



Lord therefore, as the great founder, casteth men 
as into the furnace of sorrow, and they are not 
purged from evil, the melting is in vain, and they 
are therefore rejected of God as reprobate silver. 
When sorrow and affliction, which are as the chi- 
rurgery or blood-letting of the gracious hand of 
God, effect nothing of good, it is as the corruption 
of the whole mass of blood, and is certainly unto 
death. Isa. 1. 11. Ixv. 14. Lam. iii. 65 . 

Beverly, 

In true repentance the soul makes full and firm 
resolutions of new obedience and amendment of 
life, and such as are ready to issue out into action, 
and this through the grace, power, and assistance 
of the divine Spirit. Luke xix. 8. Job xxxiv. 
31, 32. Ibid. 

No man can turn to God except he be first 
turned of God ; and after he is turned he repents : 
so Ephraim saith, * After I was converted I re- 
pented, (Jer. xxxi. 19. The truth is, a repentant 
sinner first believes that God will do that which 
He promiseth, namely, pardon his sins and take 
away his iniquity ; then he resteth on the hope of 
it, and from that and for it he leaves sin, and will 



ON HUMILITY. 



103 



forsake his old course, because it is displeasing 
unto God, and will do that which is pleasing and 
acceptable to Him. So that first of all God's 
favour is apprehended, and remission of sins 
believed ; then upon that cometh alteration of life 
and conversation. Luke xix. 8. Rom. vi. 21. 

Marr. Mod. Divin. 
A believer, when he is highest in duties, then is 
he lowest in humility . Duty puffeth up the hypo- 
crite, but a believer comes away humbled ; and 
why ? because the hypocrite had no visions of 
God ; he hath seen only his own gifts and parts, 
and this exalteth him ; but the believer hath seen 
God, and enjoyed communion with God, and this 
humbleth him. Communion with God, though it 
be very refreshing, yet it is also very abasing and 
humbling to the creature. Jerome observeth on 
(Zeph. i. 1.) where it is said, that ' Cushi was the 
son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah/ that ' Ama- 
riah signifieth the word of the Lord ; Gedaliah 
signifieth the greatness of the Lord ; and Cushi 
is interpreted humility or my Ethiopian ; So that/ 
saith he, ' from the word of the Lord, cometh a 
sight of the greatness of the Lord, and from a 

k 4 



104 



ON HUMILITY. 



sight of the greatness of the Lord, cometh hu- 
mility/ Now then, if I pride myself in any duty, 
and am puffed up under my performances, then 
have I not seen nor met with God in any duty. 
But on the other hand, if, when my gifts are at 
highest, my heart is at lowest ; if, when my spirit 
is most raised, my heart is then most humbled ; if 
in the midst of all my services I can maintain a 
sense of my own unworthiness ; if Cushi be the 
son of Gedaliah, then have I seen and had com- 
munion with God in duty, and my performances 
are from a renewed conscience. Mead. 



ON THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 105 



CHAPTER XII. 

ON THE WORK OP THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

It is the peculiar work of the Spirit to open the 
eyes and enlighten the soul by an effective illumi- 
nation, and discover to us the evidence of divine 
truths ; nor can the proposal of the object with the 
greatest certainty of evidence, or by moral reason, 
cause men to discern spiritual things spiritually ; 
since there must be a supernatural light, and 
suiting of the visive faculty to the object. Luke 
xxiv. 45. 1 Cor. ii. 14. Jer. xxiv. 7. Fleming. 

We are indeed bidden to compel men to come 
in ; but, unless there be another compeller, that is 
except there be the Spirit within to do it, the 
work is not done : unless there be two compellers 
at the same time, the Holy Ghost preaching within 
to your hearts when we preach to your ears ; ex- 
cept there be two callers, that, when we call men, 



106 ON THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



the Lord sends his Spirit to call you too ; it is in 
vain. For you must know, that it is as hard a 
thing to move a man to leave his pleasures and 
divers lusts, and vain conversation, as to turn the 
whole course of nature. Now, unless there be an 
almighty power to turn this course of nature, no 
man will ever come to Christ. A man may as 
well say, I will make a clod of earth a shining 
star, as to say he can make the carnal and dead 
heart of man like the image of God. It must be 
the Spirit of God Himself that must do it ; it is a 
work above nature. Eph. i. 19. Preston. 

To a perfect and proper knowledge of super- 
natural thing the revelation of the object is not 
sufficient, nor a due use of reason in the subject ; 
but moreover there is required the grace of Christ, 
and the special assistance of the Holy Spirit, 
whereby the heart may be opened and softened, 
and a spiritual taste and relish given, suited to the 
true sweetness of supernatural truths. Psalm cxix. 
18, 34. Reynolds. 

The least spark of saving, regenerating grace is 
wrought in the soul by the Holy Ghost, as given 
unto men to dwell in them and to abide with them. 



ON THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 107 

He is the water given by Jesus Christ unto be- 
lievers, which is in them a well of water springing 
up to everlasting life, (John iv. 14.) First they 
receive the water, the spring itself, that is the 
Holy Spirit, and from thence living waters do 
arise up in them ; they are wrought, effected, pro- 
duced by the Spirit which is given to them, (Ezek, 
xi. 19.) The least of saving grace, such as is 
peculiar to them that are regenerate, is spirit, 
(John hi. 6.) That which is born of the Spirit is 
spirit ; whatever it is that is so born, it is spirit : 
it hath a spiritual being, and it is not educible by 
any means out of the principles of nature. So, 
(2 Cor. v. 17,) it is said to be a new creature. 
Be it never so little or so great, however it may 
differ in degrees in one and in another, yet the 
nature of it is the same in all : it is a new crea- 
ture. As the least worm of the earth, in the 
old creation, is as much a creature as the sun, yea, 
or the most glorious angel in heaven ; so in the 
order of the new creation, the least spark or dram 
of true grace, that is from the sanctifying Spirit, 
is a new creature, no less than the highest faith 
or love that ever were in the chiefest of the apos- 



108 ON THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

ties. Now that which is spirit, and that which is 
not spirit, that which hath a new spiritual being, 
and that which hath none, whatever appearance 
there may be among them, yet they differ specifi- 
cally from one another : and thus it is with the 
saving grace that is in a regenerate man, and those 
common graces which are in others that are not 
so. Acts ii. 33. Tit. iii. 5, 6. Rom. viii. 5. 

Owen. 

Such as have passed the new birth must know 
a spiritual and new life, with which they were not 
born, and is from no natural cause, but formed 
and wrought within by the Spirit, whereof there 
is as certain and undeniable a demonstration as 
they are sure they breathe and have a natural life : 
a life that hath its peculiar operations and vital 
acts, put forth in its breathings, delights and de- 
sires, in a near converse with the Lord, as truly 
as any acts of this natural life ; with those sensible 
languishings and overcloudings thereof, as well as 
enjoyments and pleasures proper to its own nature, 
as the influences and breathings of the Spirit oi 
the Lord are let forth or restrained. It is sure, 
nothing can be more expressly shewed than this 



ON THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 109 



from the whole Scripture, and how it follows on 
an union with Jesus Christ, in whom it is hid. 
Jer. xxxi. 33. John iii. 5. Gal. ii. 20. John 
vi. 56, 57. Fleming, 
By nature a man loadeth himself with a world 
of vanities ; he is shipped for this world : and 
that is it which his eye aimeth at, to make himself 
happy in the world in something or other. Now, 
my brethren, Gcd meets him in the way, takes 
him off from all the ends that were for himself, 
putteth in a new pilot, setteth up a new load-star, 
giveth him a new compass, sendeth his blessed 
Spirit into his heart, that, as a wind, bloweth him 
clean another way : all the lading he hath by 
nature, he throweth them all clean overboard. 
Thus God dealeth with a man when He turneth 
him, (Eph. ii. 13. Phil. iii. 7, 8. Hos. xiv. 3.) 
Paul was a ship richly laden. I was a scholar, 
saith he, and profited in the Jewish language 
more than all my teachers : I had much to boast 
of. God comes, and He throws them all over- 
board. I count all things but as dross and dung 
in comparison of the knowledge of Christ. What 
made Paul do this ? God had touched his heart 

L 



110 ON THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

with this loadstone, to the direction of which ail 
must be conformed ; and now, saith he, I must 
needs aim at God's glory in all things : herein 
lieth the work of conversion. Now to work such 
a work as this in man, to touch a man's heart 
thus, is as much as to throw the earth off its cen- 
tre. If you should see the earth go off its centre 
and fix itself in the same sphere with the sun, and 
go along with the same pace, and with the same 
motion, you would think an almighty power must 
go to do all this. This God doth. If a man 
moveth himself, though it he to God, as self-love 
will sometimes do, yet still he is upon his own 
centre ; all is for himself. God cometh and 
turneth him off his own hinges, takes him off 
from his own bottom, placeth him in the same 
sphere with Himself, makes him aim at Him in 
all things. This is holiness : and to put this prin- 
ciple into a man's heart, nothing but the almighty 
power of God can do it : it is above all the crea- 
tion. Eph. i. 19. ii. 7, 10. Acts xx. 24. 

Goodwin. 

God not only shows us the good which we 
ought to do, and the evil which we ought to 



ON THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Ill 

avoid, — which is discovered by the letter of the 
law, — but also helps us to do that good, and 
avoid that evil, which none can ever do without 
his grace : therefore the apostle said the * letter 
killeth, but the Spirit giveth life/ He therefore 
makes a good use of the law, who, while confess- 
ing that it is good, trusts not in his own strength, 
but flies to that grace, by means of which, he will 
be enabled to avoid the evil, and do the good. 
We allow, indeed, that we have a will, free for 
good and evil, but then, it is only to do evil that 
we are free from righteousness, and slaves of sin, 
but to do good, no one can be free, except him 
who is freed by Jesus Christ, as it is written, — 
* If the Son therefore shall make you free, then 
shall ye be free indeed/ We must therefore bear 
in mind, that it is by the grace of God, through 
our Lord Jesus Christ, that men are freed from 
evil, without which, no one, either in thinking, 
willing, living, or acting, can do good. 

Augustine. 



112 



ON EXPERIENCE, 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ON EXPERIENCE. 

It is a great concernment to know that the 
scripture hath such a witness as experience, and 
that there is such a trade and correspondence as 
this betwixt the saints and the word, which lieth 
not in the common road of the world. O what an 
empty thing would religion be, if it had not this 
word experience in its grammar ; that secret and 
sure mark whereby the Christian knoweth the 
scripture is of God ; how thus the Lord hath often 
sealed their instruction in a dark plunge ! (John 
iv. 42.) O what an excellent interpreter is expe- 
rience ; Taste and see ! for thus the serious 
Christian getteth a view of the scripture and 
spiritual things, which the most subtile and pier- 
cing eye of unsanctified schoolmen cannot reach, 
(Psalm xxxiv. 8. cxvi. 10. 2 Tim. i. 12. 1 Peter 



ON EXPERIENCE. 



113 



S. 3. Gal. ii. 16. Heb. iv, 3.) But O! this 
cannot be found in books ; men will not meet with 
it in a throng of choicest notions : it confoundeth 
the wise and disputer of this world ; while the 
meanest and most simple Christian often knoweth 
more than those of greatest parts. 1 Cor. ii. 14. 
Matt. xi. 25. Fleming. 

Doth not this argument of experience, by a 
very clear demonstration, witness that great truth 
of a Godhead, whereon the whole superstructure 
of truth and godliness doth stand ? yea, in another 
manner doth enforce on men the persuasion of 
this by a more near and convincing discovery than 
the greatest works of God, or those glorious ap- 
pearances of his power and wisdom in the heavens 
and earth do ? It is true, these bring Him near to 
our eye and ear : but O ! this brings the blessed 
and invisible God nearer, into the heart and soul, 
that we may both taste and see that surely He is, 
and is that which in the scripture He is declared 
to be. It is not the contemplation of nature, in its 
highest flight, can answer such an assault of the 
devil, which may overtake the most established 
Christian about the being of God. But there is a 
demonstration within, which goes farther than the 



114 



ON EXPERIENCE . 



judgment, and passeth natural understanding ; 
whence we feel, we taste, we enjoy ; yea, his voice 
is heard in the soul, which we surely know to be 
His. 1 John i, 3, 1 Peter ii. 3. Psalm Ixxxix. 
15. Ibid. 

There is nothing of more certainty to the souls 
of any than what they have real spiritual experience 
of. When the things about which men are con- 
versant lie only in notion, and are rationally 
discoursed or debated, much deceit may lie under 
all : but, when the things between God and the 
soul come to be realized by practical experience, 
they give a never-failing certainty of themselves. 
Psalm cxvi. 10. John vi. 69. Owen. 

When the heart is cast indeed into the mould of 
the doctrine that the mind embraceth, when the 
evidence and necessity of the truth abides in us, 
when not only the sense of the words is in our 
heads, but the sense of the things abides in our 
hearts, when we have communion with God in the 
doctrines we contend for, then shall we be gar- 
risoned by the grace of God against all the assaults 
of men ; and without this, all our contending is, 
as to ourselves, of no value. What am I the 
better, if I can dispute that Christ is God, but 



ON EXPERIENCE. 115 

have no sense or sweetness in my heart from 
hence, that He is a God in covenant with my soul ? 
What will it avail me to evince hy testimonies and 
arguments, that He hath made satisfaction for sin , 
if through my unbelief the wrath of God abides 
upon me, and I have no experience of my own 
being made the righteousness of God in Him ; if 
I find not, in my standing before God, the excel- 
lency of having my sins imputed to Him, and his 
righteousness imputed to me ? Will it be any ad- 
vantage to me in the issue, to profess and dispute 
that God works the conversion of a sinner by the 
irresistable grace of his Spirit, if I was never ac- 
quainted experimentally with the deadness and 
utter impotence to good, that opposition to the 
law of God which is in my own soul by nature, 
with the efficacy of the exceeding greatness of the 
power of God, in quickening, enlightening, and 
bringing forth the fruits of obedience in me ? 
(Rev. hi. 1. 1 Cor. i. 24. ii. 5.) It is the 
power of the truth in the heart alone that will 
make us cleave unto it indeed in the hour of 
temptation. Let us not then think that we are 
any thing the better for our conviction of the 

l 4 



116 



ON EXPERIENCE. 



truths of the great doctrines of the gospel, for 
which we contend, unless we find the power of the 
truths abiding in our hearts, and have a continual 
experience of their necessity and excellency in our 
standing before God, and our communion with 
Him. 1 Thess. i. 5. 2 Tim. i. 12. Ibid. 

Experience is indeed a strong demonstration, 
and it is such a witness as leaves no room for 
debate ; for here the truth is felt, proved, and 
acted on the heart, which the Christian knoweth 
well, and is as sure of, as he is persuaded that he 
liveth, or that the sun, when it shineth, hath life 
and warmness therewith. It is true, the world 
liveth at a great distance with this ; they only 
converse with the sound of such a thing : and we 
know the naked theory of scripture-truth hath but 
a short reach, and that it differs as far from that 
which a serious practical Christian hath, as the 
sight of a country in a map is from the real dis- 
covery of the same ; where the difference is not in 
the degree, but in the kind. Psalm xxxiv. 8. 
Ixiii. 1 — 7. 1 Peter ii. 3. Fleming. 

A true believing soul cannot but be a praising 
soul. Luke L 46—55. Sibbs. 



ON PRAYER. 



117 



CHAPTER XIV. 

ON PRAYER. 

He that would be little in temptation, let him 
be much in prayer. Matt. xxvi. 41. Owen. 

He who prays as he ought, will endeavour to 
live as he prays. (Pro v. xv. 8.) He that can 
live in sin, and abide in the ordinary duties of 
prayer, never prays as he ought. A truly gracious 
praying frame is utterly inconsistent with the love 
of, or reserve for any sin. Psalm lxvi. 18. 

Ibid. 

If prayer do not constantly endeavour the ruin 
of sin, sin will ruin prayer. (Job xxvii. 10.) To 
live in sin and yet to believe the forgiveness of 
sin is utterly impossible. Psalm lxvi. 18, 19. 

Ibid. 

The believing soul, knowing, acknowledging, 
and loving the truths of salvation, cannot but wish 



118 



ON PRAYER. 



that all those things which are true in Christ may 
be true also to him, and that he may be sanctified 
and blessed according to and by those truths ; and 
sincerely desires that he, being by sin alienated 
from the life of God, may again by free justifica- 
tion, and in and through sanctification, be sealed 
up to the glory of God. This is the hunger and 
thirst after righteousness mentioned (Matt. v. 6.) 
And, I pray, what reason can there be, why he 
who believes and perceives in himself that he is 
most miserable, and is most fully persuaded that 
by nothing, neither in heaven nor in earth, he can 
be freed from his misery ; who also sees there is 
a fulness of salvation in Christ, and is certain he 
never can obtain salvation unless he be united to 
Christ ; who from his very soul loves the truth of 
the fulness of salvation in Christ alone, and com- 
munion with Him ; that he, I say, should not 
s.eriously and ardently desire to have Christ dwell- 
ing in him : and this he should seek after, this he 
should press after, and with such a desire as can 
never be satisfied but by the possession of the 
thing desired ; as hunger, and thirst are not 
allayed but by food and drink. Phil. hi. 8 — 12. 

Witsius. 



ON PRAYER. 



119 



How strange is formality in such a business as 
prayer ! which is an address to the living God, 
one of the most solemn acts of the soul ; yea, we 
may call it the most natural act of a Christian, 
lik the breathing of a child after the breast ! Alas ! 
it is sad that many times this seems rather a piece 
of invention than a matter of earnest with the 
Lord ; not so much the breathing of the soul after 
Him, as the expressing what should be our de- 
sires ! O to what class can such a piece of 
atheism be reduced as appears in our nearest 
approaches to God ! Should we look on prayer 
as a duty, and not consider it as a singular enjoy- 
ment also, without w T hich this earth would have a 
near appearance of hell, if we could not thus solace 
the soul in God, and get a vent under its greatest 
pressures. O prayer ! what thought should we 
have of it if the truth whereof were more believed ! 
I think that man who is sure of the being and 
faithfulness of God, and of the reality of prayer, 
needs not be solicitous with what face the world 
looks on him, when thus his great interest and 
encouragement are secure, T3nd a w r ell is at hand 
that can answer all his complaints. Psalm xvii. 
6. xxxiv. 5,6. Fleming. 



120 



ON PRAYER. 



Heartless, lifeless, wordy prayer, the fruit of 
convictions and gifts, or of custom and outward 
occasions, however multiplied, and whatever de- 
votion they seem to be accompanied withal, will 
never engage spiritual affections to them. Psalm 
xvii. 1. Hos. vii. 14. Owen. 

It is an astonishing thing to see, how, under 
frequency of prayer and a seeming fervency therein, 
many of us are at a stand as to visible thriving in 
fruits of grace, and it is to be feared without any 
increase of strength in the root of it ; and, which 
is yet more astonishing, men abide in the duty of 
prayer, and that in constancy, in their families and 
otherwise, and yet live in known sins : and the 
fault and guilt is wholly their own, who have 
effected a consistency between a way in sinning 
and a course in praying : and it ariseth from hence, 
that they have never laboured to fill up their re- 
quests with grace. No man was ever absolutely 
prevailed on by sin, who prayed for deliverance 
according to the mind of God. Every praying 
man that perisheth was an hypocrite : the faith- 
fulness of God in his promises will not allow us to 
judge otherwise, (Psalm 1. 15. xci. 15.) For 



OX PRAYER * 



121 



men to be earnest in prayer and thriftless in grace, 
is a certain indication of prevalent corruptions, 
and want of being spiritually-minded in prayer 
itself. He who prays as he ought will endeavour 
to live as he prays. To pray earnestly and live 
carelessly, is to proclaim that a man is not spiritu- 
ally-minded in his prayer. We may hear prayers 
sometimes that openly discover themselves to 
spiritual sense to be the labour of the brain by the 
help of gifts, in memory and invention, without 
any evidence of any mixture of humility, reverence, 
or godly fear, without any acting of faith and 
love : they flow as wine, yet smell and taste of the 
unsavoury cask from whence they proceed. Ezek. 
xx. 16. Prov. xv. 8, Ibid. 

It were to be wished this great means of prayer, 
yet left to the church, were with more singleness 
and fervour improved, both by the Christian alone 
and in converse with others. This is well known 
in the most dark and dismal times of her condition, 
what marvellous help it hath brought at a choke, 
when it hath seemed in some manner the last 
effort of the church, and all other things gone. O 
a spirit of praver ! what remarkable advantage 

M 



122 



ON PRAYER, 



hath followed upon this ! Thus hath the meanest 
of the saints access to do a great piece of service, 
even to the church universal, and the recovery 
again of the power of godliness, that is now so far 
gone. Acts xii. 5, 6, 11. Esth. iv. 16. Isa. 
lxii. 6, 7. Fleming. 

If you know the principle of prayer, and have a 
lively sense of your necessities, and hearty desire 
of God's grace and mercy, you will be able to pray 
without forms, and your affections will bring forth 
words out of the fulness of your heart ; and you 
will not be over solicitous and timorous about 
words ; for, doubtless, the Spirit, who is the help 
to us in speaking to men, will also much more 
help us to speak to God, if we desire it ; and God 
regards not eloquent words, nor artificial compo- 
sure ; neither need we regard it in private prayer. 
If you limit yourselves to forms, you will thereby 
grow formal, and limit the Spirit. 1 Cor. i. 5. 
Mark xiii. 1 1 . Luke xii. 12. Marshal. 

The richest saint must be (and is) a humble 
beggar at grace's door all his days ; and Christ is 
the Lord of the house, and the dispenser of the 
alms : and as the alms is too good not to be 



ON PRAYER, 



123 



patiently waited for, so the Lord is too good and 
too great to be quarrelled with ; and never did a 
believer get any good by complaining of Him. 
Complain to Him and pray and ask largely, but 
still with faith and patience. Knock at his door, 
but stay ; and bless Him that ever He gave you 
any crumbs of his grace : mix your prayers for 
new wanted grace with praises for his old dispen- 
sed grace. Christ loveth you, and hath proved it. 
Believe it, and bless Him for it, and wait for his 
renewing his love to you ; and in due time you 
find that He will not only answer but out-do your 
desires to Him, and all your expectations from 
Him. Gen. xlix. 18. Psalm xxvii. 14. Isa. 
xl. 31. xlix. 23. Trail. 

Do not say you cannot pray because you cannot 
speak much, or well, or long. Praying is wrest- 
ling with God : the heart is the wrestler ; holy 
faith is the strength of it : if by means of this 
strength thy heart be a good wrestler, though 
thou art ever so tongue-tied, thou wilt be a pre- 
vailer. Rhetoric goes for little in the heavenly 
court, but sincere groans have a kind of omnipo- 
tency. Neb. ii. 4. Isa. xxxviii. 14. Bjrgess. 

Prayer is chiefly a heart work ; God heareth 



124 



ON PRAYER. 



the heart without the mouth, but never hearetli 
the mouth acceptably without the heart. Your 
prayer is odious hypocrisy, mocking God, and 
taking his name in vain, when you utter petitions 
for the coming of his kingdom, and the doing his 
will, and yet hate godliness in your heart. This 
is lying unto God, and flattering Him with your 
lips; but no true prayer; and so God takes it. 
1 Sam. i. 13. Psalm xxvii. 8. lxxviii. 36. 

Marshal. 

4 To pray in the name of Christ is to pray in the 
faith of his name ; we may pray with the name of 
Christ in our mouths, and yet not pray in his 
name, unless we pray with the faith of Christ in 
our hearts. Matt. xxi. 22. John xiv. 13. 

Anonymous. 

Right believing is powerful praying ; the knee, 
eyes, and tongue, bear the least share in prayer ; 
the whole of the work lies upon the soul, and 
particularly upon faith in the soul, which is indeed 
the life and soul of prayer. Faith can pray with- 
out words ; but the most elegant words, the 
phrase of angels, is not worthy to be called prayer 
without faith. Luke xi. 2. 1 Cor. xiv. 15. 

Shaw. 



ON PRAYER. 125 

Our prayers should run parallel to promises ; 
we should ask nothing of God but what we have 
an intimation He will do for us ; our needs and 
necessities would not be sufficient arguments, but 
the principal argument is the word of God. Find- 
ing a promise in the word, faith fixes there, and 
presseth God from it ; and a believer so praying 
cannot be denied, unless God deny Himself. The 
word of God is Himself, it is His will ; so the 
soul may go with a holy boldness unto God ; for 
the thing that is promised is half done. God may 
keep us in suspense a while ; but he expects we 
should live upon the word, and hang on it till the 
time of the promise comes. All that faith labours 
for, is to work the soul to assurance that God 
will deal with us according to his word. And if 
I can make it out that such a promise belongs to 
me, I have enough to live on. Psalm cxix. 49, 58. 

T. Cole. 

When a man is assured God hath given him his 
Son, he will then easily be induced to believe and 
expect, how shall He not with Him give me all 
things ? If once He looks upon God as a Father, 
he will then easily conceive what Christ says, ■ If 



126 



ON PRAYER. 



fathers that are evil can give good things to their 
children, how much more shall your Father give 
his Spirit to them that ask Him ? And if He 
gave his Son when we did not pray to Him, how 
much more shall He with Him give us all things 
we pray for ?' Rom. viii. 32. Luke xi. 13. 

Goodwin. 

Dost thou pray with all thy might ? then though 
thy might be weak in itself, and in thine own 
apprehension such, yet because it is all the might 
thou hast, and which grace hath in thee, it shall 
be accepted ; for God accepteth according to 
what a man hath, and not according to what a 
man hath not. 2 Cor. viii. 12. Ibid. 

Prayer is an action of likeness to the Holy 
Ghost, the spirit of gentleness and dovelike sim- 
plicity, — an imitation of the holy Jesus, whose 
spirit is meek up to the greatness of the biggest 
example, — and a conformity to God, whose anger 
is always just, and marches slowly, and is without 
transportation, and often hindered, and never 
hasty, and is full of mercy. Prayer is the peace 
of our spirit, the stillness of our thoughts, the 
evenness of recollection, the seat of meditation, 



ON PRAYER. 



127 



the rest of our cares, and the calm of our tempest. 
Prayer is the issue of a quiet mind, and of un- 
troubled thoughts. It is the daughter of charity, 
and the sister of meekness ; and he that prays to 
God with an angry, that is, with a troubled and 
discomposed spirit, is like him that retires into a 
battle to meditate, and sets up his closet in the 
out quarters of an army, aad chooses a frontier 
garrison to be wise in. Taylor, 
* Thou, when thou pray est, enter into thy cham- 
ber, and shut the door/ And the reason is plain. 
He who would pray, must first retire : the spirit 
of the world and the spirit of prayer are contrary 
the one from the other, and experience will teach 
any one that he cannot well pray in a crowd. 
Business, or pleasure, or even common conversa- 
tion, if it be about the things of this world, and 
continue for any long time, will strangely indis- 
pose the mind for devotion ; and the soul, 
before she can take her flight to heaven, must 
plume and balance her wings by holy meditation ; 
she must rally her scattered and dissipated thoughts 
and fix them on the business she is going about ; 
she must consider the nature of God to whom she 

m 4 



128 



ON PRAYER. 



is to pray, of herself who is to pray to hirn, and 
of those things for which she is to pray to him ; 
she must know the sins she has been guilty of, to 
confess them, and the graces she stand in need of, 
to petition for them. All this is not to be done 
but by deep meditation, which is the mother of 
devotion, is the daughter of retirement. They 
who do not meditate, cannot pray ; and they who 
do not retire, can do neither. Horne. 



ON AFFLICTION, 



129 



CHAPTER XV, 

OX AFFLICTION. 

Grace withereth without adversity. Heb. xii, 

10, 11. RuTHERFOORD. 

It is the glory of a Christian not to be faint- 
hearted under trials. Deut. xx. 3. Isa. xl. 31. 
Heb. xii. 3. Rev. ii. 3. Dorney. 

Xo mercy hath been more endeared than what 
hath broken out of the thickest cloud, or more 
full and sweet than what hath come after much 
patience and continued wrestlings. Isa. xxxviii. 
16, 20. 1 Sam. i. 10, 11, 27, '28. ii. 1—10. 

Fleming. 

O what rare mercies lie often hid under some 
dark and afflicting providences, even while they 
are at our hand, and are not seen, from the fro- 
wardness of an embittered spirit, that will not let 
its own eyes see the advantage of such a case ; 



130 



ON AFFLICTION. 



but, as if they did well to be angry against God, 
will quarrel more his crossing their humour than 
observe his tenderness for promoting their real 
good, and cry against Him because He will not 
undo them ! Gen. xliii. 36. xlv. 5, 8. Ibid. 

It becomes a saint to believe the faithfulness of 
God to him, according to his covenant, under all 
afflictions and chastisements. Grace will act like 
itself at last ; and they that trust in the Lord shall 
never be ashamed. Though God veil his grace, 
and give us mercies on the point of his sword, yet, 
when we pass through the fire and the water, He 
will be with us : but they need good eyes to see 
the love of God when they are compassed with 
fire and water ; yet it is there : and a gracious 
soul hath some discerning of this promise in the 
midst of them. You shall not perish, because I 
will be with you. So how boldly may a saint 
enter into these fires, and walk through the valley 
of the shadow of death, and fear no evil ! God 
cannot hide his face, his love, from such a faith. 
A tried faith, that will not let God go, nor enter- 
tain an unbelieving thought of Him, is a precious 
faith . God will certainly turn back on such a 



ON AFFLICTION. 



131 



soul, and manifest his love at last in a glorious 
manner. Psalm xxiii. 4. xxvii. 1, 3. cxix. 75. 
Isa. xliii. 2. T. Cole. 

Afflictions are very overwhelming sometimes, 
and would indeed quite sink us, if the word of God 
did not speak comfort to us in and under them. 
It is a sign of a spiritual frame, when, in the 
midst of troubles and afflictions, we can find present 
delight in the word of God : but when afflictions 
come, and the word administers no comfort, it is a 
sign we are in a dead, unbelieving frame, and no 
way affected with the report the gospel makes of 
future happiness. Psalm cxix. 92. Ibid, 

That submission to the sovereign will and plea- 
sure of s God, in the disposal of all our concerns in 
this world, is an excellent fruit of faith, an eminent 
part of holiness, or duty of obedience, is acknow- 
ledged. And he that cannot live in an actual 
resignation of himself and all his concerns unto 
the sovereign pleasure of God, can neither glorify 
Him in any thing, nor have one hour's solid peace 
in his own mind. This the uncertainty of all 
things here below calls for. None knows how 
soon it may be his portion to be brought into the 



132 



ON AFFLICTION. 



utmost extremity of earthly calamities. There is 
none so old, none so young, none so wise, none so 
rich, as thence to expect relief from such things. 
Where then shall we cast anchor in this condition ? 
whither shall we betake ourselves for quiet and 
repose ? It is no where to be obtained but in a 
resignation of ourselves and all our concernments 
into the sovereign pleasure of God. And what 
greater motive can we have hereunto than this ? 
The first act of divine sovereign pleasure concern- 
ing us, was the choosing us from all eternity unto 
holiness and happiness. This was done when we 
were not, when we had no contrivances of our 
own : and shall we not now put all our temporary 
concerns into the same hand ! Can the same 
sovereign pleasure of God be the free only cause 
of all our blessedness, and can it do that which is 
really evil unto us ? Our souls, our persons, were 
secure and blessedly provided for, as to grace and 
glory, in the sovereign will of God. And what a 
prodigious impiety is it, not to trust all other 
things in the same hand, to be disposed of freely 
and absolutely ! If we will not forego our interest 
in mere, absolute, free, sovereign grace for ten 



ON AFFLICTION. 



133 



thousand worlds, as no believer will ; how ready 
should we be to resign up thereunto that little 
portion which we have in this world among 
perishing things! Job. i, 21. Psalm xxxvii. 
3 — 5. Rom. viii. 32. Owen. 

The Lord dealeth with his people as with sons, 
having chosen them all in the same election of 
grace, prepared for them the same inheritance, 
and decreed that they should all go the same way 
to it. He will not exempt one of them from 
suffering ; no, not his only begotten Son, who 
went to his crown carrying his cross ; and 4 whom 
the Father did foreknow, them he also did predes- 
tinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.' 

Romaine. 

In sickness the soul begins to dress herself for 
immortality. And first, she unites the strings of 
vanity that made her upper garment cleave to the 
world and sit uneasy. She puts off the light and 
fantastic summer-robe of lust and wanton appetite. 
Next to this, the soul, by the help of sickness, 
knocks off the fetters of pride and vainer compla- 
cencies. Then she draws the curtains, and stops 
the light from coming m, and takes the pictures 

n 



134 



ON AFFLICTION . 



down, — those fantastic images of self-love, and 
gay remembrances of vain opinion and popular 
noises. Then the spirit stoops into the sobrieties 
of humble thoughts, and feels corruptions chiding 
the forwardness of fancy, and allaying the vapour 
of conceit and factious opinions. Next to these, 
as the soul is still undressing, she takes off the 
roughness of her great and little angers and ani- 
mosities, and receives the oil of mercies and 
smooth forgiveness, fair interpretations, and gentle 
answers, designs of reconcilement and Christian 
atonement, in their places. Taylor. 



ON CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE - 



135 



CHAPTER XVI. 



ON CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE: 



The lowest true faith will do its work safely, 
though not so sweetly : true faith in the lowest 
degree, gives the soul a share in the first resurrec- 
tion : it is of the vital principle which we receive 
when we are quickened. Now be it never so 
weak a life we have, yet it is a life that shall never 
fail ; it is of the seed of God which abideth, incor- 
ruptible seed that dieth not. A believer in spirit, 
is quickened from the dead ; be he never so young, 
never so sick, never so weak, he is still alive, and 
the second death shall have no power over him, 
A little faith gives a whole Christ : he that hath 
the lowest faith hath as true an interest in the 
righteousness of Christ as the most stedfast be- 
liever. Others may be more holy than he, but 
not one in the world more righteous than he ; for 
he is righteous with the righteousness of Christ, 



136 



ON CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE . 



He cannot but be low in sanctification ; for a little 
faith will bring forth but little or no obedience ; if 
the root be weak, the fruit will not be great ; but 
he is beneath none in sanctification. The most 
imperfect faith will give present justification, be- 
cause it interests the soul in a present Christ ; the 
lowest degree of true faith gives the highest com- 
pleteness of righteousness. You, who have but a 
weak faith, have yet a strong Christ ; so that, 
though all the world should set itself against your 
little faith, it should not prevail ; sin cannot do it, 
Satan cannot do it, hell cannot do it ; though you 
take but weak and faint hold on Christ, He takes 
sure, strong, unconquerable hold on you. Have 
you not often wondered that this spark of heavenly 
fire should be kept alive in the midst of the sea ? 
It is everlasting, a spark that cannot be quenched, 
a drop of that fountain that can never be dried 
up. Jesus Christ takes special care of them that 
are weak in the faith ; on what account soever 
they are sick and weak and unable, this good 
Shepherd takes care of them : he shall rule, and 
they shall abide. Mic. v. 4. Col. ii. 10. John 
x. 28. Mark ix. 24. Luke vii. 50. Owen. 
Christ maintains a little grace in his children 



ON CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. 



137 



amidst many strong corruptions and lusts ; grace 
is but a little grain, and yet it lives and thrives : 
it is an abiding feed, under continual influences 
from Christ. 1 John hi. 5. John xiv. 9. 

T. Cole, 

By the bare word of God it is that the heavens 
continue, and the earth (without any other foun- 
dation) hangs in the midst of the air ; therefore 
well may the soul stay itself upon that, even when 
it hath nothing else in sight to stay itself upon, 
By his word it is that the covenant of day and 
night, and the preservation of the world from any 
farther overflowings of waters, continueth ; which 
if it should fail, yet his covenant w T ith his people 
shall abide firm for ever ; though the whole frame 
of nature were dissolved. Heb. i. 3. Jer. xxxiii. 
20, 21. Sibbs. 

The almighty architect stretches out the north, 
and its whole starry train, over the empty space ; 
he hangs the earth and all the setherial globes 
upon nothing ; yet are their foundations laid so 
sure, that they can never be moved at any time. 
No unfit representation to the sincere Christian of 
his final perseverance ; but such as points out the 



188 ON CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. 

cause that effects it, and constitutes the pledge 
which ascertains it. His nature is all enfeebled, 
he is not able of himself to think a good thought, 
he has no visible safeguard, nor any sufficiency of 
his own ; and yet, whole legions of formidable 
enemies are combined to compass his ruin. The 
world lays unnumbered snares for his feet ; the 
devil is incessantly urging the siege by a multitude 
of fiery darts or wily temptations ; the flesh, like 
a perfidious inmate, under colour of friendship and 
a specious pretence of pleasure, is always forward 
to betray his integrity ; but, amidst all these 
threatening circumstances of personal weakness 
and imminent danger an invisible aid is his de- 
fence. I will uphold thee (says the blessed God) 
with the right hand of my righteousness. O 
comfortable truth ! The arm which fixes the stars 
in their courses, and guides the planets in theirs, 
is stretched out to preserve the heirs of salvation. 
My sheep (adds the great Redeemer) are mine ; 
and they shall never perish, neither shall any 
pluck them out of my hand. What words are 
these ! And did they come from Him who hath 
all power in heaven and earth ? And were they 



ON CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. 139 

spoken to every unfeigned though feeble follower 
of the great Shepherd ? Then Omnipotence itself 
must be vanquished before they can be destroyed, 
either by the seductions of fraud, or the assaults 
of violence. If you ask therefore what security 
we have of enduring to the end, and continuing 
faithful unto death ? The very same that estab- 
lishes the heavens, and settles the ordinances of 
the universe. Can these be thrown into confu- 
sion ? Then may the true believer draw back 
unto perdition ? Can the sun be dislodged from 
his sphere, and rush lawlessly through the sky ? 
Then, and then only, can the faith of God's elect 
be overthrown finally. Be of good courage then, 
O my soul ; rely on those divine succours which 
are so solemnly stipulated, so faithfully promised. 
Though thy grace be languid as the glimmering 
spark — though the overflowings of corruption 
threaten it with total extinction ; yet, since the 
Great Jehovah has undertaken to cherish the dim 
principle, many waters cannot quench it, nor the 
floods drown it. Nay, though it were feeble as 
the smoking flax, almighty goodness stands en- 
gaged to augment the heat, to raise the fire, and 

n 4 



140 ON CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. 

feed the flame, till it beam forth a lamp of immor- 
tal glory in the heavens. Isa. xlii, 3. Song viii. 
7. Isa. xli. 10. John x. 28. Hervey. 

Unto the power of God is our perseverance 
wholly attributed, (1 Peter i. 5.) Ye are kept (as 
with a garrison, as the word signifies) through the 
power of God unto salvation. And were there 
not a great and an apparent danger of miscarry- 
ing, such a mighty guard would not be needed. 
There is nothing puts us into such danger as our 
corruptions that still remain in us, which fight 
against the soul, and endeavour to overcome and 
destroy us. Now then, to be kept, maugre all 
these ; to have grace maintained, a spark of grace 
in the midst of a sea of corruption ; how doth this 
honour the power of God in keeping us ! How 
will the grace of God under the gospel triumph 
over the grace of God given Adam in innocency ! 
When Adam having his heart full of inherent 
grace, and nothing inwardly in his nature to 
seduce him, and the temptation that he had being 
but matter of curiosity, and the pleasing his wife, 
yet he fell. When as many poor souls under the 
state of grace, that have but mites of grace in 



ON CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE, 



141 



comparison, and worlds of corruption, are yet 
kept, not only from the unnecessary pleasures of 
sin in time of prosperity, but hold out against all 
the threats, all the cruelties of wicked persecutors 
in the time of persecution, which threatens to 
debar them of all the present good they enjoy ! 
And though God's people are often foiled, yet 
that there should still remain a seed within them. 
This illustrates the grace of Christ under the gos- 
pel. For one act in Adam expelled all grace out 
of him, when yet his heart was full of nothing 
else. Were our hearts filled with grace perfectly 
at first conversion, this power would not be seen ; 
neither would the confusion of the devil be so 
great, and the victory so glorious, if all sin were 
at first conversion expelled, For by this means 
the devil in his assaults against us hath the more 
advantages, fair play, (as I may say) fair hopes of 
overcoming, having a great faction in us as ready 
to sin as he is greedy to tempt ; and yet God 
carries on his own work begun, though slowly and 
by degrees, backeth and maintaineth a small party 
of grace within us to his confusion. That as, 
in God's outward government towards his church 



142 



ON CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. 



here on earth, He suffers a great party, the 
greater by far, to be against his church, and yet 
upholds it, and rules among the midst of his 
enemies, (Psalm ex. 2.) so doth He also in every 
particular believer's heart. When grace shall be 
in us but as a spark, and corruptions as much 
smoke and moisture damping it ; grace but as a 
candle, and that in the socket, among huge and 
many winds ; then to bring forth judgment unto 
victory, that is a victory indeed. Isa. xlii. 3. 
1 John iii. 9. Goodwin . 

Constancy in gospel obedience is the beauty 
and glory of it. All that profess godliness keep 
the law now and then; but the excellency of it 
lies in constancy. Psalm cxix. 33, 112. Matt, 
xxiv. 13. Heb. x. 29. T. Cole. 

If God has made thee (of a great sinner) the 
object of his mercy, thou mayest be assured of a 
continuance of his love. He pardoned thee when 
thou wast an enemy ; will He leave thee now thou 
art his friend ? He loved thee when thou hadst 
razed out in a great measure his image and 
picture, which He had set in thy soul: will He 
hate thee now, since He has restored that image, 



ON CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE, 143 

and drawn it with fresh colours ? He justified 
thee when thou wast ungodly ; and will He cast 
thee off since He hath been at such pains about 
thee, and written in thee a counterpart of his 
own divine nature in the work of grace ? Were 
his bowels first moved when thou hadst no grace ; 
and will they not sound louder when thou hast 
grace ? Thou hadst a rich present of his grace 
sent thee when thou couldst not pray for it ; and 
will He not much more give thee whatever is 
needful, when thou callest upon Him ? He was 
found of thee when thou didst not seek Him ; and 
will He hide himself from thee when thou art 
enquiring after Him ? God considered, before he 
began with thee, what charge thou wouldst stand 
Him in, both of merit in Christ, and of grace in 
thee ; so that the grace He hath given thee is not 
only a mercy to thee, but an obligation on Him- 
self, since his credit is engaged to complete it. 
Thou hast more unanswerable arguments to plead 
before Him than thou hadst ; viz. his Son, his 
truth, his promise, his grace, his name, wherein 
before thou hadst not the least interest. To what 
purpose hath God called thee and washed thee, if 
He did not intend to supply thee with as much 



144 



ON CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE, 



grace as shall bring thee to glory ? Hath God 
given thee Christ, and will He detain any thing 
else? Ezek. xvi. 8. Isa. lxv. 1. Matt. vii. 7. 
Rom. viii. 32. Charnock. 

Well, Christ is in heaven, our true treasure, 
whither neither the thief, nor moth, nor canker 
can come. This is our happiness, that He keep- 
eth our treasure ; it is out of the reach of devils 
and men : were it in our hands we would soon 
betray it. If we are set in heaven with Christ, 
Christ may as soon be pulled out of heaven as we 
disappointed of our inheritance. Matt. vi. 19, 
20. John xiv. 19. Bain. 

A saint may be brought very low, but he can 
never fall below a promise : he may lose estate, 
friends, and health, and much of the presence of 
God ; but, if once in covenant with God, he can 
never lose the promise : the word of the Lord en- 
dures for ever. There is my comfort. Psalm 
cxix. 92. T. Cole. 

Faith's assurance, that in the Lord Jehovah 
there is everlasting strength, even while we have 
not the experience of the communication of it, is 
a cordial against fainting. Isa. xxvi. 4. 

Hajlyburton. 



ON CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE 



145 



Men may love their friends more than they can 
help them ; but the lovingkindness of God is 
attended with a power as infinite as itself. Psalm 
cxlvi. 5. Jer. xxxii. 27. Charnock. 

Since it is sure and undeniable that this earth 
doth hang in an empty place, though men see not 
whereon it leans and rests, O what a strange 
thing is it ! could the air bear up so vast and 
ponderous a body ? But herein is a marvellous 
divine power convincingly witnessed, which hath 
so established it, that it cannot be moved. Now 
is it not this very word that bears up such a 
weight ? And thence with as clear ground we 
may reason for adventuring the church, with its 
weight, and every Christian's burden, whatever it 
may be, on the promise of this God, on whose 
word the great bulk of the earth doth this day 
lean ? I must say, no mathematical demonstra- 
tion does follow by a clearer evidence, than this 
consequence from such premises is undeniable. 
Isa. xlviii. 13. Job xxvi. 7. 1 Peter v. 7. 

Fleming, 

How few, among the throng of professed pro. 
testants, know what it is to have the Bible for the 

o 



146 



ON CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE. 



security of the protestaxit interest, and thus quiet 
their souls, though all the foundations seem to 
shake, because they know the cause is certainly 
God's, and He is faithful who hath promised. 
Isa. li. 7, 8, &c. liv. 17. Ibid. 



SINNERS ENCOURAGED, ETC, 



14 



CHAPTER XVII. 

SINNERS ENCOURAGED TO APPLY TO CHRIST. 

What should a sinner do, but go to Christ ? 
what can come of a sinner if Christ receive him 
not ? yea, what is a Saviour of sinners for, but 
for receiving sinners and saving them from their 
sins ? and yet sinners coming unto Christ, and 
Christ's welcoming of them, makes unbelievers 
murmur both against Christ and believers. So 
sure it is that no man can see any glory in that 
grace of Christ that he hath no sight or sense of 
his own need of. Matt. 1. 21. Luke xx. 2. 
Mark ii. 17. Trail. 

While we endeavour to prepare our way to 
Christ by holy qualifications, we do rather fill it 
with stumbling-blocks and deep pits, whereby our 
souls are hindered from ever attaining to the 
salvation of Christ, Christ would have us to be- 



148 



SINNERS ENCOURAGED 



lieve on Him that justifies the ungodly, and there- 
fore He doth not require us to be godly before we 
believe : he came as a physician for the sick, and 
doth not expect they should recover their health 
in the least degree before they come to Him. The 
vilest sinners are fitly prepared and qualified for 
this design, which is to shew forth the exceeding 
riches of grace, pardoning our sins and saving us 
freely, (Eph. ii. 5, 7.) It is no affront to Christ, 
or flighting or contemning the justice and holiness 
of God, to come to God while we are polluted 
sinners ; but rather it is an affronting and con- 
temning the saving grace, merit, and fulness of 
Christ, if we endeavour to make ourselves right- 
eous and holy before we receive Christ himself, 
and all holiness and righteous in Him by faith. 
Matt. xi. 28. Marshal. 

When thy conscience is thoroughly afraid with 
the remembrance of thy sins past, and the devil 
assaileth thee with great violence, going about to 
overwhelm thee with heaps, floods, and whole seas 
of sins, to terrify thee, and draw thee from Christ, 
then arm thyself with such sentences as these : 
Christ, the Son of God was given, not for the 



TO APPLY TO CHRIST. 



149 



holy, righteous, worthy, and such as were his 
friends ; but for the wicked sinners, for the un- 
worthy, and for his enemies. Wherefore, if Satan 
say, Thou art a sinner, and therefore must be 
damned ; then answer thou, and say, Because 
thou sayest I am a sinner, therefore will I be 
righteous and be saved : and if he reply, Nay, 
but sinners must be damned ; then answer thou, 
and say, No ; for I fly to Christ, who hath given 
himself for my sins ; and therefore, Satan, in that 
thou sayest I am a sinner, thou givest me armour 
and weapons against thyself, that with thine own 
sword I may cut thy throat, and tread thee under 
my feet. Matt. xi. 28. Rom. v. 6, 8. Luther. 

There is a far greater power in the blood of 
Christ to save and cleanse, than in sin to defile and 
destroy, (Rom. viii. 3.) The law became weak to 
do good, but it hath power to condemn. The 
strength of sin is the law ; the law gives strength 
to sin, because, by virtue of the curse of the law, 
sin reigns and denies the souls of men, through 
that righteous curse, ' The soul that sins shall 
die.' But the blood of Jesus Christ hath greater 
power to save, than sin (together with the law) 



; 150 



SINNERS ENCOURAGED 



hath to condemn. For the blood of Christ takes 
away and abolisheth it utterly ; where this blood 
is applied and brought home, sin itself cannot ruin 
that soul. The soul is poisoned and corrupted by 
sin ; but the blood of Christ takes away that poi- 
son, and makes the soul pure and holy, as if it had 
never sinned. Therefore as to those discourage- 
ments, ' I shall never get power against these 
corruptions, They will be my ruin;' these are 
deep reflectings on Jesus Christ, as if sin were 
stronger than He ; as if thy sin were more power- 
ful to damn thee than Christ is to save thee. 
John i. 29. 1 John i. 7. hi. 5. S. Mather. 

It is not the righteous and godly man, but the 
sinful and ungodly man, that Christ came to call, 
justify, and save. So that if you were a righteous 
and godly man, you were neither capable of call- 
ing, justifying, or saving by Christ ; but being a 
sinful and ungodly man, I will be bold to say un- 
to you, as the people said unto blind Bartimeus, 
* Be of good comfort, Arise, He calleth thee,' and 
will justify and save thee. Go then unto Him, I 
beseech you ; and if He come and meet you (as 
his manner is) then do not unadvisedly say with 



TO APPLY TO CHRIST. 151 

Peter, Depart from me O Lord ! for I am a sinful 
man ; but say in plain terms, O come unto me, 
for I am a sinful man, O Lord ! yea, go farther, 
and say as Luther bids you, Most gracious Jesus, 
and sweet Christ, I am a poor miserable sinner, 
and therefore do judge myself unworthy of thy 
grace ; but yet, having learned from thy word 
that thy salvation belongetb to such an one, there- 
fore do I come unto thee to claim that right which 
through thy gracious promise belongeth unto me. 
Assure yourself, man, that Jesus Christ requires 
no portion with his spouse ; No verily ; He re- 
quires nothing with her but mere poverty ; the 
rich he sends empty away, but the poor are by 
Him enriched. And indeed, saith Luther, the 
more miserable, sinful, and distressed, a man doth 
feel himself, and judge himself to be, the more 
willing is Christ to receive him and relieve him. 
So that, saith he, in judging thyself unworthy, 
thou art thereby become truly worthy ; and so 
indeed thou hast gotten a greater occasion of 
coming unto Him. Wherefore then, in the 
words of the apostle, I do exhort and beseech you 
to come boldly to the throne of grace, that you 

o4 



152 



SINNERS ENCOURAGED 



may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time 
of need. Heb. iv. 16. Matt. ix. 13. Luke i. 
53. Marr. Mod. Divin. 

Let thy soul be set on the highest mount that 
any creature was ever yet set upon, and enlarged 
to take in view the most spacious prospect both of 
sin and misery, and difficulties of being saved, 
that ever yet any poor humble soul did ever cast 
within itself, yea, join to these all the hinderances 
and objections that the heart of man can invent 
against itself, and salvation ; lift up thy eyes and 
look to the utmost thou canst see, and Christ by 
his intercession is able to save thee beyond the 
horizon and utmost compass of thy thoughts, even 
to the utmost. Heb. vii. 25. 1 John i. 7. 

Goodwin. 

Let no man look for sanctification before he is 
justified, that is, let no man be discouraged from 
coming to Christ, because he finds not in himself 
that godly sorrow for sin, that ability to repent, 
that disposition of heart, which he desires to have. 
We must first be in Christ before we are new 
creatures. And this is a common fault among us ; 
we would fain have something before we come : 



TO APPLY TO CHRIST. 



153 



we think God's pardons are not free, but we must 
bring something in our hand. You know the 
proclamation runs thus, buy without money, that 
is, come without any excellency at all ; because we 
are commanded to come and take the water of life 
freely. Therefore do not say, I have a sinful dis« 
position and an hard heart, and cannot mourn for 
sin as I should ; therefore I will stay till that be 
done. It is all one as if thou should say, I must 
go to the physician ; but I will have my wounds 
well, and my disease healed first, and, when that 
is done, I will go to the physician. What is the 
end of thy going to him, but to have thy disease 
healed ? I say, it is the same folly. The end of 
going to Christ is, that this very hardness of thy 
heart may be taken away, that this very deadness 
of thy spirit may be removed ; that thou mayest 
be enlivened, quickned, healed ; that thou mayest 
hate sin : for he is thy physician : look not for it 
beforehand : thou must first be in Christ before 
thou canst be a new creature. John vii. 37. 
Matt. xi. 28. Isa. lv. 1. Preston. 

Sinners can do nothing but make wounds that 
Christ may heal them, and make debts that He 



154 



SINNERS ENCOURAGED 



may pay them, and make falls that He may raise 
them, and make deaths that He may quicken 
them, and spin out and dig hells for themselves 
that He may ransom them. Now will I bless the 
Lord that ever there was such a thing as the free 
grace of God, and a free ransom given for sold 
souls : only, alas ! guiltiness maketh me ashamed 
to apply Christ, and to think it pride in me to put 
out my unclean and withered hand to such a 
Saviour ! But it is neither shame nor pride for a 
drowning man to swim to a rock, nor for a ship- 
broken soul to run himself ashore upon Christ. 
Rom. vii. 14 — 23. Rev. xxii. 17. 

RUTHERFOORD. 

Shall we tell men, that unless they be holy 
they must not believe on Jesus Christ, that they 
must not venture on Christ for salvation till they 
be qualified, and fit to be received and welcomed 
by Him ? This were to forbear preaching the 
gospel at all, or to forbid all men to believe on 
Christ. For never was any man qualified for 
Christ. He is well qualified for us, (1 Cor. i. 30.) 
But a sinner out of Christ hath no qualifications 
for Christ, but sin and misery. Whence should 



TO APPLY TO CHRIST. 



155 



he have any better but from and in Christ ? Nay, 
suppose an impossibility, that a man were quali- 
fied for Christ, I boldly assert that such a man 
would not, nor ever could, believe on Christ. For 
faith is a lost, helpless, condemned sinner's cast- 
ing himself on Christ for salvation; and the 
qualified man is no such person, (Matt. ix. 13. 
1 Tim. i. 15.) Shall we warn people that they 
should not believe on Christ too soon ? It is im- 
possible they should do it too soon. Can a man 
obey the great gospel command too soon ? 
(1 John hi. 23.) Or do the great work of God 
too soon? (John vi. 29.) A man may too soon 
think he is in Christ, and that is, when he is not 
so indeed. And this we frequently teach. But 
that is only an idle dream, not faith. A man may 
too soon fancy that he hath faith ; but, I hope, he 
cannot act faith too soon. If any should say a 
man may be holy too soon, how would that say- 
ing be reflected on ? And yet it is certain, that, 
though no man can be holy too soon (because he 
cannot too soon believe on Christ, which is the 
only spring of true holiness) yet he may, and 



156 



SINNERS ENCOURAGED 



many do, set about the study of that he counts 
holiness too soon, that is, before the tree be 
changed, (Matt. xii. 33, 34.) before he have the 
new heart, (Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27.) and the Spirit 
of God dwelling in him, which is only got by 
faith in Christ, (Gal. iii. 14.) And therefore all 
this man's studying of holiness is not only vain 
labour, but acting of sin. And if this study and 
these endeavours be managed, as commonly they 
are, to obtain justification before God, they are 
the more wicked works still. Rom. xiv. 23. 
Gal. v. 4. Trail. 

This fire must never go out, but it must be like 
the fire of heaven ; it must shine like the stars ; 
though sometimes covered with a cloud, or ob- 
scured by a greater light, yet they dwell for ever 
in their orbs, and walk in their circles, and 
observe their circumstances, but go not out by 
day nor night, and set not when kings die, nor 
are extinguished when nations change their 
government : so must the zeal of a Christian be a 
constant incentive of his duty ; and though some- 
times his hand is drawn back by violence or need, 



TO APPLY TO CHRIST, 



157 



and his prayers shortened by the importunity of 
business, and some parts omitted by necessities 
and just compliances, yet still the fire is kept 
alive ; it burns within when the light breaks not 
forth, and is eternal as the orb of fire or the em- 
bers of the altar of incense. Taylor. 



158 ON THE LOVE OF THE WORLD. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

ON THE LOVE OF THE WORLD. 

He that looks not for much from the creature, 
can never be much deceived. He that looks for 
much from God shall be sure to have his desire 
answered and satisfied ; he shall never fall short 
of his expectation. 1 Peter i. 24. 1 Cor. vii. 
29 — 31. Psalm cxxv. i. Jer. xvii. 5, 7. 

Preston. 

Outward things did never yield less than when 
we press them most ; and when we are eager in 
the pursuit of the world, and satisfaction there, 
our spirits are hurried with many perturbations : 
so that we must say, That which keepeth from 
enjoying God doth also hinder the comfortable 
enjoyment of ourselves. 1 Tim. vi. 9—11. 

Fleming, 

It is a thing to be lamented, that a Christian, 



ON THE LOVE OF THE WORLD. 



159 



born for heaven, having the prize of his high call- 
ing set before him, and matters of that weight 
and excellency to exercise his heart upon, should 
be taken up with trifles, and fill both his head and 
heart with vanity and nothing, as all earthly 
things will prove ere long. Yet, if many men's 
thoughts and discourses were distilled, they are 
so frothy, that they would hardly yield one drop 
of true comfort. Isa. lv. 2. 2 Cor. iv. 18. Col. 
iii. 1 — 3. Sibbs. 

The more we cast the thoughts and love of the 
world out of our hearts, the fairer we lie for com- 
munications of light and knowledge from heaven, 
which God has promised to strangers upon the 
earth ; but if a man will be always muddling in 
the world, it is just with God to hide his com- 
mandments from him. A saint never carries it 
more like a saint than when he carrieth it most 
like a stranger in this world. Psalm cxix. 19. 
Heb. xi. 13. T. Cole. 

Hereby many deceive their own souls ; goods, 
lands, possessions, relations, trades, with secular 
interest in them, are the things whose image is 
drawn on their minds, and whose characters are 



160 



ON THE LOVE OF THE WORLD. 



written on their foreheads as the titles whereby 
they may be known. As believers, beholding the 
glory of Christ in the blessed image of the gospel, 
are changed into the same image and likeness by 
the Spirit of the Lord ; so these persons, behold- 
ing the beauty of the world and the things that 
are in it in the cursed glass of self-love, are in 
their minds changed into the same image. Hence 
perplexing fears, vain hopes, empty embraces of 
things perishing, fruitless desires, earthly, carnal 
designs, cursed self-pleasing imaginations, feeding 
on, and being fed by the love of the world and 
self do abide and prevail in them. Eph. iv. 17 — 
20. Rom. viii. 6. But we have not so learned 
Christ. Owen. 

Unless we can arrive unto a fixed judgment 
that all things here below are transitory and 
perishing, reaching only to the outward man, the 
body ; that the best of them have nothing that is 
truly substantial or abiding in them ; that there 
are other things, wherein we have an assured in- 
terest, that are incomparably better than they, and 
above them ; it is impossible but we must spend 
our lives in fears, sorrows, and distractions. 2 
Cor. iv. 18. Col. iii. 1, 2, 5. Ibid. 



ON THE LOVE OF THE WORLD, 1GI 



Let a man but deal plainly with his own heart, 
and he shall find that, notwithstanding he hath 
many things, yet there is ever one thing wanting ; 
for indeed man's soul cannot be satisfied with any 
creature, no, nor with a world of creatures. And 
the reason is, because the desires of man's soul 
are infinite, according to that infinite goodness it 
once lost in losing God ; yea, man's soul is a 
spirit, and therefore cannot communicate with any 
corporal thing ; so that all creatures not being 
that infinite fullness which our souls have lost, and 
towards which they do still re- aspire, they cannot 
give it full contentment. Eccl. i. 7, 8. Psalm 
lxxiii. *2o. Marr. Mod. Divin. 

Fie, fie upon this condemned and foolish world, 
that will give so little for Christ and salvation. O 
if there were but a free market proclaimed of 
Christ and salvation in that day when the trumpet 
of God shall awaken the dead, how many buyers 
would be there ! God send me no more happi- 
ness but that which the blind world (to their 
eternal woe) letteth slip through their fingers ! 
Prow i. 24 — 31. Rutherfoord. 
Faith makes the believer inherit substance, and 



162 ON THE LOVE OF THE WORLD. 

look to things that are real ; while the rest of the 
unbelieving world weary themselves in chasing 
shadows, and feed their deluded eyes with the 
sight of vain imaginations. The more the belie- 
ver looks at things that are not seen, the more 
reality doth he observe and find in them : whereas 
the more he looks at things that are seen, the 
more vanity and emptiness he finds in them. He 
looks to things seen, and they mock him ; he 
looks upon them, and they are not ; a serious 
look at them looks them into nothing : but things 
not seen have in them substance, reality, and 
solidity, which he with delight beholds. He looks 
upon things seen, and sees them refuse, loss, and 
clung : but he sees things that are not seen to be 
so excellent, that even those things which seem to 
have some glory have yet no glory, Ly reason of 
this glory which doth excel. He looks at things 
that are seen, and sees them like a vapour or airy 
meteor, in a continual motion while they are, and 
in a little time they quite vanish : but things not 
seen, he perceives fixed, unchangeable, and that 
for ever, (2 Cor. iv. 18=) Faith has a back look, 
as well as a fore look : it not only sees those 



ON THE LOVE OF THE WORLD. 163 

things that are to come in God's revelation of 
them, hut it also in like manner sees those things 
which have been of old, even from everlasting. 
And indeed a humbled believer could not believe the 
reality of any favour tendered unto a vile sinner 
(such as he knows himself to be) by the holy God, 
unless he saw it flowing from sovereign grace as 
the fountain ; he could not believe any thing use- 
ful unto himself in his present condition, if it were 
not the product of wonderfully free love, that 
observes not the desert but the need of those upon 
whom it bestows its favours. .Again, he could 
not be persuaded to believe that he shall have any 
unchangeable mercy, while he himself changes so 
often, and very often to the worse, unless he saw 
them the product of the free, sovereign, and eter- 
nal love of Him who is God, and changes not : 
and this indeed is the true reason why the sons of 
Jacob are not consumed. Here is one sweet glass 
wherein the believer has indeed a satisfying dis- 
covery of the solidity, excellency, and eternal un- 
changeableness of those things that are not seen, 
(Jer. xxxi. 3.) Faith looks at things unseen in 

p 4 



164 ON THE LOVE OF THE WORLD. 

their procuring cause, the death of the eternal Son 
of God, who neither by the blood of goats or 
calves, but by his own blood, entered once into 
the holy place, having obtained eternal redemp- 
tion. Here the believer, which hath faith's eyes, 
sees the reality of things ; for surely the blood of 
God was not shed for nothing : nay, here it sees 
their glory and excellency. A wise merchant will 
not give pearls for trifles ; far less the only wise 
God this precious blood for things of no or small 
value. Here, if any where, the believer may see 
them, beyond all rational contradiction, real, great, 
durable, and eternal/ (Rom. ix. 15. Ezek. xvi. 
5, 6.) Faith sees and is satisfied about things 
not seen, by the view it gets of them, their 
reality, and their glory, in that well-ordered cove- 
nant which is the means of their conveyance. 
Isa. lv. 3. 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. Halyburton. 

O do not reject the kingdom of God against 
yourselves. Be so wise as to receive our witness. 
1 cannot, I will not let you go. Stay a while, and 
let us reason together. However lightly you may 
esteem your souls, I know our Lord has an un- 



ON THE LOVE OF THE WORLD. 



165 



speakable value for them. He thought them 
worthy of his precious blood. I beseech you 
therefore, O sinners, be you reconciled to God. I 
hope you do not fear being accepted in the be- 
loved. Behold he calls you. Behold he prevents 
and follows you with his mercy. You cannot say 
I have, like legal preachers been requiring you to 
make brick without straw. I have not bid you 
make yourselves saints, and then come to God ; 
but I have offered you salvation on as cheap terms 
as you can desire. I have offered you Christ's 
whole wisdom. Christ's whole righteousness, 
Christ's whole sanctification and eternal redemp- 
tion, if you will but believe in him. If you say 
you cannot believe, you say right ; for faith as 
well as every other blessing, is the gift of God. 
But then it is free to all that confess themselves 
sinners, and sincerely ask it in his dear Son's 
name. ' Ask then, and it shall be given you ; 
seek, and you shall find ; knock, and a door of 
mercy shall be opened unto you.' For if Christ 
has given himself, will he not give you faith, 
whereby alone his merits can be applied to your 
hearts ? Alas ! why do we not entertain more 



166 ON THE LOVE OF THE WORLD. 

worthy, more loving thoughts of Christ ? Or do 
you think he will have mercy on others, and not 
on you ? But are you not sinners ? And did not 
Jesus Christ come into the world to save sinners ? 
If you say you are the chief of sinners ; I answer, 
that will he no hinderance to your salvation ; 
indeed it will not, if you lay hold on him by faith. 
Read the evangelists, and see how kindly he be- 
haved to his disciples, who fled from and denied 
him. ' Go tell my brethren/ says he ; — he does 
not say, Go tell those traitors, but, ' Go tell my 
brethren, and Peter as though he had said, ' Go 
tell my brethren in general, and poor Peter in 
particular, that I am risen again. O comfort his 
drooping heart ; tell him I am reconciled to him ! 
Bid him weep no more so bitterly. For though 
with oaths and curses he thrice denied me, yet I 
died for his sins, and I am risen again for his 
justification, I freely forgive him all/ Thus slow 
to anger, and of great kindness, was our all- mer- 
ciful High- Priest. And do you think he has 
changed his nature, and forgets poor sinners, now 
he is exalted to the right hand of God ? No, he 
is the same yesterday, to day, and for ever, and 



ON THE LOVE OF THE WORLD. 



167 



sitteth there only to make intercession for us. 
Come then, ye harlots — come, ye publicans — 
come ye most abandoned sinners, come and be- 
lieve on Jesus Christ. Though the whole world 
despise and cast you out, yet he will not disdain 
to take you up. — O amazing ! O infinitely con- 
descending love ! Whitfield. 



163 



GOD THE ONLY PORTION 



CHAPTER XIX. 

GOD THE ONLY PORTION OF THE SOUL. 

Out of God there is nothing fit for the soul to 
stay itself upon. Jer. xvii. 5, 8. Psalm xx. 7. 

Sibbs. 

The whole world cannot weigh against this one 
comfort, that God is our's. Ps. xlvi. Ibid. 

All our rest in this world is from trust in God. 
Psalm iv. 8. Hab. iii. 17, 18. Owen. 

A man can be in no condition wherein God is 
at a loss, and cannot help him. If comforts be 
wanting, he can create comforts, not only out of 
nothing, but out of discomforts. Jer. xxxii. 27. 

Sibbs. 

Let all seen enjoyments lead you to the unseen 
Fountain whence they flow. 2 Cor. iv. 18. Jer. 
xxxi. 3. Halyburton. 

A sense of God's presence in love is sufficient 



OF THE SOUL, 



169 



to rebuke all anxiety and fears in the worst and 
most dreadful condition. Psalm xxiii. 4. Hab. 



He is too covetous whom God cannot suffice : 
he hath all things that hath him that hath all 



The first part of the covenant is this, that God 
would be a God to him and his seed : and this in- 
deed is most comprehensive, and includes all the 
rest : I will establish my covenant and be a God 
to thee and thy children after thee. And what is 
it for God to be a God to a man, thy God, or a 
God to thee ? It is when He gives to a poor 
creature a special interest and property in Him- 
self j so that God, in his all- sufficiency and effici- 
ency, is ours, and we are his. All his attributes 
and works are ours for our good. I will be thy 
God, that is, all my attributes shall be thine, for 
thy good, as really as they are mine for my glory. 
The infinite wisdom of God shall contrive their 
good whose God He is ; the infinite power of 
God shall effect it : the infinite love of God is 
theirs ; his mercy, truth, and all his attributes are 
theirs ; as his essential power, so his working, or 



hi. 17, IS. 



Owen. 



things. Rom. viii. 32. 



Bridge. 



Q 



170 



GOD THE ONLY PORTION 



his actual power : as He will be all to them, so he 
will work all for them. Psalm lxxxvii. 7. lxxxix. 
28, 29. ciii. 17. Isa. xxxiii. 22, xlix. 16. 

Mather. 

The Lord will be a sun and a shield, (Psalm 
Ixxxiv. 11.) He will be a shield to keep off all 
evil, and a sun to fill them with all comfort, I 
am (saith He) thy exceeding great reward. As 
if He should say, Abraham, whatsoever is in me, 
all that I have, all my attributes, are thine, for thy 
use ; my power, my wisdom, my counsel, my 
goodness, my riches, whatsoever is mine in the 
whole world, I will give it for thy portion : I and 
all that I have are thine. And might not He well 
say, He was an exceeding great reward ? Who 
can understand the height and depth, and breadth 
and length, of this reward ! that is, Thou shalt 
have all kind of comfort in me, and thou shalt 
have them in the greatest measure. 1 Sam. xii. 
22. 2 Sam. vii. 24. Isa. xli. 10. xlii. 5. 

Preston. 

For God to be a God to any one includes eter- 
nal life : for when God becomes a God to a sinner, 
then He becomes that to him which He is to 



OF THE SOUL. 



171 



Himself. And what is God to Himself ? With- 
out doubt the fountain of eternal and consummate 
blessedness. God, when he gives himself in 
grace to a man, gives him all things ; for He is 
all things. That man finds in God a shield 
against every evil, and an exceeding great reward. 
And what can he desire more to perfect happiness ? 
From whence it is that the apostle joins these 
two, for God to be a God to any one, and to pre- 
pare for him a city. Heb. xi. 16. Witsius. 

Let all seen enjoyments lead you to the unseen 
fountain from whence they flow. Never rest 
upon any thing you have, without you see God in 
it ; and then be sure you rest not upon the enjoy- 
ment, but upon that God who manifests himself 
by it ; for the enjoyment will quickly be gone, but 
the fountain will remain. Psalm lxiii. 3. Jer. 
xxxi. 3. Isa. liv. 8. Halyburton. 

All that antinomianism which the orthodox 
preachers of free grace are falsely charged with 
lies here, because they maintain that the first thing 
a convinced sinner is to eye, in his turning to 
God, is the free grace and mercy of God in Christ 
for the pardon of sin. Evangelical conviction 



172 GOD THE ONLY PORTION ETC. 

leads him to a reliance upon Christ in some degree 
of saving faith for the pardon of all his sins, and 
this faith begets in him a secret hope of pardon, 
and is the spring of all after- sanctification, namely, 
of mortification of sin, of repentance, and of all 
new obedience. Let this be remembered, as the 
main thing we contend about, that we begin our 
religion at the grace of God, and do not think to 
ground our faith in Christ upon any legal prepa- 
rations or works of our own. Tit. iii. 5, 6. 

Cole. 

As Abraham dealt by his concubine's children, 
so doth God by the Ishmaels of the world ; He 
gives them portions and sends them away ; but the 
inheritance He reserves for his Isaacs ; to them 
He gives all that He hath, yea, even Himself ; 
and what can we have more ? Gen. xv. 1. Psalm 
xvi. 5. 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. Ibid. 



ON GRATITUDE. 



173 



CHAPTER XX, 

ON GRATITUDE. 



Then' doth a man eat and drink to the glorv ± 
God, when, confessing that he is unworthy to en- 
joy this life and the comforts of it, he praises the 
bounty of God which bestows all things abunantly 
upon him ; and principally admires the immense 
the immense love of the Lord Jesus, who willingly 
sustained the want of all things delightful, and 
suffered Himself to have vinegar and gall given 
him to drink, that it might be granted to those 
that are his by the divine favour to eat the fat 
and drink the sweet : whea also doth not so much 
delight in the creature and the gift as in the Crea- 
tor and giver, tasting with his utmost delight how 
sweet the Lord is : when from his heart he 
resolves to lay out that life which by these means 
is lengthened out, and all those faculties which 



174 



ON GRATITUDE. 



are so continually preserved, in the service of God 
who gave and preserves them : lastly, when, from 
the pleasures of this natural life, he ascends by 
meditation nigh unto those incredible delights of 
the future and heavenly life, and, tasting them in 
his thoughts by faith, with a grateful mind he 
sings a song of love unto God : O Lord ! if thou 
dost such great things for us in prison, what wilt 
Thou do in the palace ! Isa. lv. 2. Heb. xii. 
22. xiii. 14, 15. Witsius. 

Learn to value spiritual blessings and temporal 
likewise, not by the things themselves, but by the 
love of God from which they came. A small 
blessing may be out of abundance of love ; God 
may abound in love to thee in bestowing it, when 
the blessing in the matter of it is but little. What 
is the reason that many good souls, who have 
true grace wrought in their hearts, are so very 
unthankful ? They look to the grace wrought in 
them, and see there is but little of that ; and they 
value all by what they find in themselves by the 
blessing wrought ; I find but little in me, if any 
at all : and while they thus value the blessing by 
what they find in themselves, they prove unthank- 



ON GRATITUDE. 175 

ml unto God. Whereas that little grace thou 
hast, that little faith, be it but as a grain of mus- 
tard-seed, it proceeds out of abundance of grace 
in God. God abounds infinitely in his love to 
thee, when thoa hast but the least beginnings of 
grace in thee, as small at first as Nicodemus had. 
Eph. i. 8. ii. 4. iii. 11. Goodwin. 

Where grace is, there will be no mercy gotten 
with much struggling, but there will be a particu- 
lar thankful remembrance of it a long while much 
enlargement : and as prayer abounded, so will 
thanksgiving abound also. Great blessings, that 
are won with prayer, are worn with thankfulness ; 
such a man will not ask new, but he will withal 
give thanks for old. Thankfulness, of all duties, 
proceeds from pure grace. Prayer and thanks 
are like the double motion of the lungs ; the air 
that is sucked in by prayer is breathed forth again 
by thanks. Eph. v. 20. Heb. xiii. 15. Psalm 
L 14. Goodwin. 

The middle, we may observe, and the safest, 
and the fairest, and the most conspicuous places in 
cities, are usually deputed for the erection of 
statues and monuments dedicated to the memory 
of worthy men, who have nobly deserved of their 



176 



ON GRATITUDE. 



countries. In like manner should we, in the 
heart and centre of our soul, in the best and high- 
est apartments thereof, in the places most exposed 
to ordinary observation and most secure from the 
invasions of worldly care, erect lively representa- 
tions and lasting memorials unto the divine bounty; 
constantly attending to which, we may be disposed 
to gratitude. Not one blessing, not the least 
favourable passage of providence, ought to perish 
with us, though long since passed, and removed 
out of the sphere of present sense. If a grateful 
affection lies in our hearts, it will respire through 
our mouths, and discover itself in the motion of 
our lips. Neither shall we content ourselves in 
lonesome tunes and private soliloques, to whisper 
out the divine praises, but shall loudly excite and 
provoke others to a melodious consonancy with 
us, — we shall, we the sweet singer of Israel, cite 
and invoke heaven and earth, the celestial choir of 
angels, the several estates and generations of men, 
the numberless company of all the creatures, to 
assist and join in concert with us in celebrating 
the worthy deeds, and magnifying the glorious 
name of our most mighty Creator, of our most 
bountiful benefactor. Barrow. 



MISCELLANIES , 



177 



MISCELLANIES. 

The Christia?i's Triumph. — And what now only 
remains to be ascertained ? What ? Only ou v 
own intervening death ! We must, it is true, be 
absent from these bodies, or we cannot, as we 
would, be present with the Lord. And is that 
all ? Can any thing now be more cei cain than 
that ? O happy state of our case ! How should 
our hearts spring and leap for joy, that ou** affairs 
are brought into this posture ; that in order to our 
perfect blessedness, nothing is further wanting but 
to die ; and that the certainty of death completes 
our assurance of it ! What should now hinder 
our breaking forth into the most joyful thanks- 
givings, that it is so little doubtful we shall die ; 
*'iat we are in no danger of a terrestial immor- 
tality ; and that the only thing that it remained 
we should be assumed of, is so very sure ; that we 
are sure it is not in the power of all this world to 



178 



MISCELLANIES. 



keep us always in it ; that the most spiteful 
enemy we have in all the world, cannot do us that 
spite to keep us from dying! How gloriously 
may good men triumph over the impotent malice 
of their most mischievous enemies ! namely, that 
the greatest mischief, even in their own account, 
that it can ever be in their power to do them, is 
to put it out of their own power ever to hurt 
them more; for they now go quite out of their 
reach. They can (being permitted) ' kill the 
body, and after that have no more that they can 
do.' What a remarkable, significant, after that, 
is this ! What a defiance doth it import of the 
utmost effort of human power and spite, that 
here it terminates ! Howe. 

The use of means combined with faith in the 
promises of God, — Their thoughts are vain who 
think that their watching can preserve the city, 
which God himself is not willing to keep. And 
are not theirs as vain, who think that God will 
keep the city, for which they themselves are not 
careful to watch ? The husbandman may not 
therefore burn his plough, nor the merchant for- 
sake his trade, because God hath promised ( I will 



MISCELLANIES 



179 



not forsake thee/ And do the promises of God 
concerning our stability, think you, make it a 
matter indifferent for us to use, or not to use the 
means whereby to attend, or not to attend to 
reading ? To pray, or not to 1 pray, that we fall 
not into temptations ?' Surely if we look to stand 
in the faith of the sons of God, we must hourly, 
continually, be providing and setting ourselves to 
strive. It was not the meaning of our Lord and 
Saviour in saying, 'Father, keep them in thy 
name/ that we should be careless to keep our- 
selves. To our own safety, our own sedulity is 
required. And then blessed for ever and ever be 
that mother's child, whose faith has made him the 
child of God. The earth may shake, the pillars of 
the world may tremble under us; the countenance 
of the heaven may be appalled, the sun may lose 
his light, the moon her beauty, 'the stars their 
glory ; but concerning the man that trusteth in 
God, if the fire have proclaimed itself unable as 
much as to singe a hair of his head ; if lions, 
beasts ravenous by nature, and keen with hunger, 
being set to devour, have as it were religiously 
adored the very flesh of the faithful man ; what is 



180 



MISCELLANIES. 



there in the world that shall change his heart, 
overthrow Irs faHh, aUer his affection towards 
God, or the affection of God to him ? Hooker. 

Milton's Resignation, — ' T do not regard my 
loi: either with weariness or compunction/ says 
Milton, referr ; ng to the loss of his sight : ' I con- 
tinue in the same sentiment fixed and immovable ; 
I do not think my God displeased with me, neither 
is he displeased ; on the contrary, I experience 
and thankfully acknowledge his paternal clemency 
and benignity towards me in every thing that is of 
the greatest moment; specially in this, that, he 
himself consoling and encouraging my spirits, I 
acquiesce, without a murmur, in his sacred dispen- 
sations. It is through his grace that I find my 
friends, even more than before, kind and officious 
towards me ; that they are my consolers, honour- 
ers, visitors, assistants. Those who are of the 
highest consideration in the republic, finding that 
f he light of my eyes departed from me, not being 
slothful and inactive, but while I was with con- 
stancy and resolution placing myself in the fore- 
most post of danger for the defence of sacred 
liberty, do not on their parts desert me. Nor is 



MISCELLANIES. 



181 



it an occasion of anguish to me, though you count 
it miserable, that I am fallen in vulgar estimation 
into the class of the blind, the unfortunate, the 
wretched, and the helpless; since my hope is, that 
I am thus brought nearer to the mercy and pro- 
tection of the universal Father. There is a path, 
as the apostle teaches me, through weakness to a 
more consummate strength : let me, therefore be 
helpless, so that in my debility the better and im- 
mortal vigour of our human nature may be more 
effectually displayed ; so that, amidst my dark- 
ness, the light of the divine countenance may 
shine forth more bright ; then shall I be at once 
helpless, and yet of giant strength ; blind, yet of 
vision most penetrating : thus may I be in this 
helplessness carried on to fulness of joy, and in 
this darkness surrounded with the light of eternal 
day." 

The Dying Christian. — Thus speaks the dying 
Christian : When I consider the awful symptoms 
of death, and the violent agonies of dissolving 
nature, they appear to me as medical preparations, 
sharp but salutary : they are necessary to detach 

R 



182 



MISCELLANIES. 



me from life, and to separate the remains of in- 
ward depravity from me. Besides, I shall not be 
abandoned to my own frailty ; but my patience 
and constancy will be proportional to my suffer- 
ings, and that powerful arm which hath supported 
me through life, will uphold me under the pressure 
of death. If I consider my sins, many as they are, 
I am invulnerable ; for I go to a tribunal of mercy, 
where God is reconciled, and justice is satisfied. 
If I consider my body, I perceive I am putting off 
a mean and corruptible habit, and putting on robes 
of glory. Fall, fall, ye imperfect senses, ye frail 
organs, fall, house of clay, into your original dust; 
you will be sown in corruption, but raised in 
incorruption ; sown in dishonour, but raised in 
glory ; sown in weakness, but raised in power. 
(1 Cor. xv.) If I consider my soul, it is passing, 
I see, from slavery to freedom. I shall carry with 
me that which thinks and reflects. I shall carry 
with me the delicacy of taste, the harmony of 
sounds, the beauty of colours, the fragrance of 
odoriferous smells. I shall surmount heaven and 
earth, nature and all terrestial things, and my ideas 



MISCELLANIES. 



183 



of all their beauties will multiply and expand. If 
I consider the future economy to which I go, I 
have, I own, very inadequate notions of it ; but 
my incapacity is the ground of my expectation : 
could I perfectly comprehend it, it would argue its 
resemblance to some of the present operations of 
my mind. If worldly dignites and grandeurs, if 
accumulated treasures, if the enjoyments of the 
most refined voluptuousness, were to represent to 
me celestial felicity, I should suppose, that, par- 
taking of their nature, they partook of their vanity. 
But, if nothing here can represent the future state, 
it is because that state surpasseth every other. 
My ardour is increased by my imperfect knowledge 
of it. My knowledge and virtue I am certain will 
be perfected; I know, I shall comprehend truth, 
and obey order ; I know, I shall be free from all 
evils, and in possession of all good ; I shall be 
present with God, I know, and with all the happy 
spirits who surround his throne ; and this perfect 
state, I am sure, will continue for ever and ever. 
Such are the all-sufficient supports which revealed 
religion affords against the fear of death. — Such 



184 



MISCELLANIES. 



are the meditations of a dying Christian ; not of 
one whose whole Christianity consists of dry 
speculations, which have no influence over his 
practice, but of one who applies his knowledge to 
relieve the wants of his life. Saurin. 

Sharing in Others' Good. — My neighbour's good 
success is mine, if I equally triumph therein ; his 
riches are mine, if I delight to see him enjoy 
them ; his health is mine, if it refresh my spirits ; 
his virtue is mine, if I by it am bettered, and have 
hearty complacence therein. By this means a 
man derives a confluence of joy upon himself, and 
makes himself, as it were, the centre of all felicity, 
enriches himself with the plenty, and satiates him- 
self with the pleasure of the whole world ; reserv- 
ing to God the praise, he enjoys the satisfaction 
of all good that happens to any. And verily could 
we become endowed with this excellent quality of 
delighting in others' good, and heartily thanking 
God for it, we need not to envy the wealth and 
splendour of the greatest princes ; not the wisdom 
of the profoundest doctors ; not the religion of the 
devoutest anchorets ; no, nor the happiness of the 



MISCELLANIES. 



185 



highest angels ; for, upon this supposition, as the 
glory of all is God's, so the content in all would be 
ours. Barrow. 

My merit is the mercy of the Lord. So long as 
he is not poor in mercy, I am not poor in merit : 
and while his mercies abound, my merits are 
many. Bernard. 

In the worst of times there is still more cause 
to complain of an evil heart, than of an evil and 
corrupt world. Prov. xxx. 2. Fleming. 

Bold sinning doth afterwards make faint believ- 
ing. Psalm xxxviii. 3 — 5. Ibid. 

None are more ready to shrink in a day of 
trouble, than such who at a distance seem most 
daring. John xiii. 37. xviii. 17, 25. 

Ibid. 

Places or conditions are happy or miserable, as 
God vouchsafeth his gracious presence more or 
less. Exod. xxxiii. 14, 15. Psalm cxxi. 8. 

Sibbs. 

God draweth straight lines, but we think and call 
them crooked. Ezek. xviii. 25. Rutherfoord. 
What unthankfulness is it to forget our conso- 



186 



MISCELLANIES. 



lations, and to look only upon matter of grievance ; 
to think so much upon two or three crosses as to 
forget an hundred blessings ! Psalm ciii. 2. 

Sibbs. 

A good man suffers evil and doth good. Acts 
vii. 59, 60. Ibid. 

A natural man suffers good and doth evil. Isa. 
xxvi. 19. Ibid. 

A godly man's comforts and grievances are hid 
from the world. Natural men are strangers to 
them. Prov. xiv. 10. Ibid. 

Nothing can be very ill with us when all is 
well within : we are not hurt till our souls are 
hurt. If the soul itself be out of tune, outward 
things will do us no more good than a fair shoe to 
a gouty foot. 1 Chron. iv. 10. Prov. xxv. 20. 
Matt. x. 28. Ibid. 

What we are afraid to do before men, we should 
be afraid to think before God. Jer. xvii. 10. 

Ibid. 

False fears bring true vexations ; the imaginary 
grievances of our lives are more than the real. 
Psalm liii. 5. Prov. xxvi. 13. Ibid. 



MISCELLANIES. 



1S7 



He that hath slight thoughts of sin, never had 
great thoughts of God. Psalm 1. 21. Owen. 

Riches and abundance of the earth loads more 
than it fills ; and men's wealth only heightens 
their wants. The great man oftener wants a 
stomach and rest, than the poor wants meat and a 
bed to he on. Eccles. v. 10, 12. Fleming. 

He wants no company, who hath Christ for his 
companion. Psalm Ixxiii. 25. Sibbs. 

The wronged side is the saferside. Piov. xii. 5. 

Ibid. 

Trust God and be doing, and let him alone 
with the rest. Psaim xxxvii. 3. Ibid. 

The depths of misery are never beyond the 
depths of mercy. Ephes. ii. 4, 5. Psalm xxxiv. 
4, 5. Ibid. 

To be morose, implacable, inexorable, and re- 
vengeful, is one of the greatest degeneracies of 
human nature. Eccles. vii. 9. Owen. 

When a child of God wants peace, he can have 
no peace till God speaks it. I?a. 1 vii . 19. Job. 
xxxiv. 29. Good^ix, 

B 4 



188 



MISCELLANIES. 



In all worldly joys there is a secret wound. 
Prov. xiv. 13. Owen. 

A true believing soul cannot but be a praising 
soul. Luke i. 46 — 55 Sibbs. 

In all favours, think not of them so much as 
God's mercy and love in Christ, which sweetens 
them. Jer. xxxi. 3. Ibid. 

God will be our God so long as he is Christ's 
God, and because he is Christ's God, John x. 29. 
xvii. 10, 21 . Ibid. 

The grossest defilements of sin can no-ways 
stain religion and the ways of the Lord. Job 
xxxv. 6, 8. Psalm cxiv. 160. Fleming. 

It is our safest course in every affliction, to 
lodge the adequate cause of it in our own deserts. 
Isa. lxiv. 6, 7. Owen. 

Abound in actings of faith, and we shall thrive 
in holiness. 1 John iii. 3. Psalm xcii. 12. Ibid. 

Ignorance of God and ourselves is the great 
principle and cause of all our disquietments. Rom. 
i. 21, 22. Ibid. 

No man dare ask of God so much as he is 
ready and willing to give. James i. 5. Luther. 



MISCELLANIES. 



189 



When we are most ready to perish, then is 
God most ready to help. Gen. xxii. 14. Ibid. 

Seek to be pardoned ; but above all seek to be 
beloved. Psalm xxv. 1L. Eph. iii. 19. Zeph. 
iii. 17. Goodwin. 

They only are wise, who are wise to salvation. 
Job xxviii. 28. 1 Cor.i. 20, 24. Psalm cxi. 10. 

Ibid. 

Nothing but the death of Christ for us, will be 
the death of sin in us. Rom. v. 1. vi. 15. 

Owen. 

The least grace is a better security for heaven 
than the greatest gifts or privileges whatever. 
1 Cor. xhi. 1, 13. Ibid. 

It is not the outward profession of the truth, 
but the inward power of it, that is useful unto the 
world or the souls of men. Rev. iii. 1. Ibid. 

If once we are sure God hath done a thing, 
there is no room left to dispute its equity. Gen. 
xviii. 25. Rom. ix. 20, 21. Halyburton. 

We are never engaged to love till the Lord's 
kindness draw us. Hos. xi. 4. Song i. 4. 2 Cor. 
v. 14. Ibid. 



190 



MISCELLANIES. 



Men are out of their right minds till they come 
by faith and repentance to Christ Jesus. Luke 
xv. 17. 1 Cor. vi. 11. Bain. 

The field which hath millions of weeds in it, is 
a corn-field for all that. Isa. lvii. 17, 18. Jer. 
xiv. 7. Burgess. 

He that exclaims, I am dead, expresseth a 
conceit he refuteth. Psalm lxxxviii. 5, 8. 

Ibid. 

One rose upon a bush, though but a little one, 
and though not yet blown, proves that which 
bears it to be a true rose tree. Rev. ii. 13, 14. 
iii 8. Burg. 

As soon shall heavenly joy enter hell, as a 
presumptuous sinner's heart. Deut. xxix. 19, 
20. Isa. xxvi. 12. lvii. 21. Ibid. 

A godly man best knows what true and solid 
pleasure is. Psalm cxix. 165. Prov. iii. 17. 
Luke x. 20. Fleming. 

How sweet is his smile, in whose countenance 
heaven lieth ! Psalm xxi. 6. ixiii. 3. Ibid. 

They who are not some way or other under the 
power of a design to be like unto God, are every 



MISCELLANIES. 



191 



way like the devil. 1 Cor. xv. 48. Eph. v. 8. 
1 Pet. ii. 9, 12. Owen. 

A constant design after the not being of sin is 
a blessed evidence of a saving faith. Psalm lxvi. 
18, 19. Ibid. 

We cannot begin to lead a holy life, till we 
first look to Christ for pardon of sin. Luke i. 
74, 75. T. Cole. 

Repentance is the greatest honour next to inno- 
cence. 2 Cor. vii. 10. Ibid. 

The comfort of a Christian lieth not in his own 
fulness, but in Christ's. John i. 16. Phil, iv. 13. 

Ibid. 

He that lives in sin and expects happiness 
hereafter, is like him that soweth cockle, and 
thinks to fill his barn with wheat or barley. Luke 
vi. 44. Gal. vi. 7, 8. Bunyan. 

One minute sooner than God's time would not 
be his people's mercy. Exod. xii. 41. Psalm 
xxxi. 15. Fleming. 

Do all, suffer all, expect all, as being in Christ 
and not otherwise. John xv. 5. Phil. iv. 13. 

E. Cole. 



192 



MISCELLANIES. 



Men, left to their own wills, will rather go to 
hell than be beholden to free grace for salvation. 
John v. 40. Ibid. 

Better to be a lost sheep than a goat or swine. 
Matt. x. 26. Marshal. 

He that thinks to draw saving graces out of 
natural principles, but spins out his bowels to die 
in his own web. Rom. viii. 8. E. Cole. 

A believer's heel may be bruised, but his vital 
parts are out of reach. Zech. ii. 8. 1 John v. 
18. Ibid. 

Praying only for carnal things, shews a carnal 
heart, and leaves it carnal. Hos. vii. 14. Jam. 
iv. 3. Marshal. 

It is in vain for God to put off the soul that 
seeks Him, his kingdom, his righteousness, with 
lesser things : He knows that cannot be. Psalm 
Ixxiii. 25. T. Cole. 

To put on the name of Christ, and not to walk 
in the ways of Christ, what is it else than to 
prevaricate with the divine name ? Tit. i. 16. 

Cyprian. 

He is wise enough who hath learned the gos- 



MISCELLANIES, 



193 



pel : he is altogether out of his senses who seeks 
saving knowledge any where else ; for here are 
all treasures. 2 Tim. Hi. 15, 16. Davenaxt. 

From all past ages, before time began to flow, 
God hath decreed to confer the grace of salvation 
by Christ upon us. Matt. xxv. 34. John xvii. 
6, 9, 23. Calvin. 

No man can rejoice in this life and that which 
is to come : there is a necessity that he who 
would possess the one must lose the other. 1 John 
ii. 16. Heb. xi. 25, 26. Luke xvi. 13. 

Augustine. 

Grace makes a heart-memory, even when there 
is no good head-memory. Psalm cxix. 11. 

Boston, 

In vain do men pretend to religion while un- 
godly company is their choice. Prov. xiii. 20. 
Psalm cxix. 63. Ibid. 

He that is contented with just grace enough 
to get to heaven and escape hell, and desires 
no more, may be sure he hath none at all, and is 
far from being made partaker of the divine nature. 
Psalm li. 6. xl. 8. 1 John iii 3. Jaxeway. 



194 



MISCELLANIES. 



All our present glory consists in our prepara 
tion for future glory. Col. i. 12. Owen. 

God is faithful, who hath made himself a debtor 
to us, not by receiving any thing at our hands, but 
by promising all things to us. Heb. xi. 11. 

Augustine. 

He is no Christian that believes not that faith 
in the person of Christ is the spring of all evan- 
gelical obedience. 2 Cor. v. 14. Owen. 

Live not so much upon the comforts of God, as 
upon the God of comforts. Psalm lxiii. 3. 

Mason. 

Poor worldlings ! what will ye do when the 
span-length of your forenoon's laughter is ended, 
and when the weeping side of providence is turned 
to you ? Luke vi. 24. Rutherfoord. 

Old age, and waxing old as a garment, is writ- 
ten on the fairest face of the creation. Psalm cii. 
26. Ibid. 

What misery to have both a bad way all the 
day, and no hopes of lodging at night. Prov. 
xiv. 12, 32. Ibid. 

Sin's joys are but night-dreams, thoughts, ima- 



MISCELLANIES. 



195 



sanations, and shadows, Rom. vi. 21. Eccles. i. 
7—10. Ibid. 

Having gotten Christ, it is not possible to keep 
him peaceably, except the devil were dead. 1 Pet. 
5—9. Ibid. 

A may-be of mercy is a sufficient ground for 
our reliance, and support of the soul upon God. 
2 Kings xix. 4. Zeph. ii. 3. Amos. v. 15. 

Bridge. 

Such as know God's glorious holiness, and 
their own sorry righteousness, will despair of 
themselves, and never venture with their briers 
and thorns upon a consuming fire. Isa. xxvii. 
4, 5. Heb. vi. 8. Phil. iii. 8. Jenks. 

An atheist, that denies the being of God, doth 
not so much affront him as a natural man that 
owns his being, but walks as if there was no God, 
as if he were not a just and righteous God. Tit. 
i. 16. Rom. ii. Charnock. 

God's word only is our true religion, as the 
divine rule ; but our confession, books, words, and 
lives, shew how we understand it. Isa. liii. 1. 
Hos. xiv. 9. Isa. xxix. 11, 12. T. Cole, 



196 



MISCELLANIES. 



A real inclination of soul to seek after the pre- 
cepts of God, to do and to walk after them, is an 
infallible sign of a child of God. Psalm cxix. 94. 

Ibid. 

But and if I was conceived in iniquity, and in 
sin my mother nourished me in her womb, where, 
I pray thee, O my God, where and when, O Lord, 
was I, thy servant, innocent? Psalm li. 5. lviii. 3. 

Augustine. 

Sinful man is not only blind, but is in love with 
his blindness ; he boasts that he sees when he is 
most of all blind, and with all his might resists 
that true light, which by the works of divine pro- 
vidence, by the word of God, and some sparkling 
beams of the Spirit, most kindly offers itself. 
John ix. 40, 41, Witsius. 

Men's sins are innumerable, yet they are but 
cyphers to the vast sums of grace which are every 
day expended ; because they are finite, but mercy 
is infinite. Rom. v. 20. Psalm ciii. 17. Charnock. 

Well may we wonder that the great God should 
stoop so low, to enter into such a covenant of 
grace and peace, founded upon such a Mediator, 



MISCELLANIES. 



197 



with such utter enemies, base creatures, sinful 
dust and ashes as we are. This is the wonder- 
ment of angels, a torment of devils, and the glory 
of our nature and persons, and will be matter of 
admiration and praising God to us for all eternity, 
Psalm ciii. 1—3. 1 John iv. 9. Rev. v. 9, 10. 

SlBBS. 

O how marvellous a contrivance is there where 
the Blessed Majesty of God finds an argument in 
Himself, when man had none wherewithal to 
plead ! the Son was found in the form of a serv- 
ant, and became our nearest kinsman to redeem 
the inheritance, where his people's standing is en- 
sured by another Surety and strength than their 
own ; not on their apprehending, but their being 
apprehended ; where the Lord does oblige him- 
self by bond to make that good which is only of 
grace, and is most freely given ; where he both 
frames the desire within the soul and satisfies it. 
Isa. xlv. 24. Jer. iii. 19. Ezek. xvi. 4, 9. 

Fleming, 

The fountain of mercy is God's love to us from 
eternity, which inclined to us when we were hate- 



198 



MISCELLANIES. 



ful ; when he had determined to manifest this 
love to us, then according to mercy he saved us. 
Grace and mercy, and his giving Christ, all is 
from hence, He so loved the world, that He gave 
his only begotten Son, &c. John hi. 16. Bain. 

Free grace is God's darling, which He loves to 
advance ; and it is never more advanced than 
when it beautifies the most mis shapen souls. 
1 Tim. i. 14, 15. Charnock. 

If Satan lay to my charge ; although in Christ 
Jesus thou hast satisfied the punishment which 
thy sins have deserved, and hast put on his right- 
eousness by faith, yet thou canst not deny but thy 
nature is corrupt, so that thou art prone to all 
evil, and thou hast in thee the seeds of all vices : 
against this temptation this answer is sufficient, 
That, by the goodness of God, not only perfect 
righteousness, but even the holiness of Christ 
also, is imputed and given unto me, as if I had 
neither committed any sin, neither were there any 
blot or corruption cleaving to me. 1 Cor. i. 30. 
Song iv. 7. Bastingius. 

Grace pleaseth a believer so well, that he cannot 



MISCELLANIES 



199 



but study to please God in all things ever after ; 
the law of grace constrains him. 2 Cor. v. 14. 

T. Cole. 

The suretiship-righteousness of Christ, which is 
through faith upon believers, is his perfect con- 
formity to the moral law in all that which the 
justice of God did by virtue thereof demand in 
behalf of the elect from Christ as their surety, 
that they might, not only in a way of grace, but 
in a way of justice, be brought to that eternal 
blessedness and glory whereto God in his infinite 
love had appointed them. Gal. iv. 4. Rom. 
hi. 26. Mather. 

To take up mercy, pardon, and forgiveness, ab- 
solutely on the account of Christ, and then to 
yield all obedience in the strength of Christ, and 
for the love of Christ, is the life of a believer. 
2 Cor. v. 14, 15. Phil. iv. 13. Owex, 

The grace of God is little beholden to that 
doctrine which would give the glory of it to a 
graceless thing (free-will) ; and as little have the 
souls of men to thank it for : it feeds them with 
dreams and fancies, which, w T hen they awake, will 

s 4 



200 



MISCELLANIES, 



leave them hardly bestead and hungry. There- 
fore sit not down under the shadow of that ground, 
it hath a worm at the root. And they will not 
be held guiltless, nor kept from the scorching sun, 
whoever they be that shelter themselves in the 
covert of it ; it is a spark of men's own kindling, 
wherewith though compassed round, they will lie 
down in sorrow Isa. 1. 11. Gal. i. 15 Rom. 
ix. 16. E. Cole. 

The commemoration of the covenant of works 
at Sinai was made to convince the Israelites of 
their sin and misery, to drive them out of them- 
selves, to teach them the necessity of satisfaction, 
and to compel them to Christ ; and so is subser- 
vient to the covenant of grace. Rom. in. 20. 
Gal. hi. 24. Witsius. 

From the intimate conjunction that is between 
Christ and the church, it is just and equal in the 
sight of God, according to the rules of his eternal 
righteousness, that what he did and suffered in the 
discharge of his office should be esteemed, reck- 
oned, and imputed unto us, as unto all the fruits 
and benefits of it, as if we had done and suffered 
the same things ourselves. Isa. Hi:. 5, 6 Owen. 



MISCELLANIES 



201 



By virtue of his union with the church, which of 
his own accord he entered into ; and his under- 
taking therein to answer for it in the sight of 
God, it was a righteous thing with God to lay the 
punishment of all our sins upon Him, so as that 
he might freely and graciously pardon them all, to 
the honour and exaltation of his justice as well as 
of his grace and mercy. Rom. iii. 24 — 26. 
Psalm lxxxv. 10 Ibid. 

God's great design, in the method of salvation 
made choice of by infinite wisdom, was to stain 
the pride of all glory, that no flesh might glory in 
his sight, but that he that glorieth should glory 
only in the Lord. Jer. ix. 24. 1 Cor. i. 30. 

Halyburton. 

In his cross were divine holiness and vindictive 
justice exercised and manifested, and through his 
triumph grace and mercy are exerted to the 
utmost. This is that glory which ravisheth the 
hearts and satiates the souls of them that believe. 
In due apprehension hereof let my soul live, in the 
faith hereof let me die, and let present admiration 



202 



MISCELLANIES. 



of this glory make way for the eternal enjoyment 
of it in its beauty and fulness. Heb* x. 12. Col. 
i, 20. Eph, iii. 18. Rom, xi, 33, Ism. 

It is certain in experience, that with a poor 
and slender It may he> at the first, many a soul 
hath cast anchor within the veil, blindfold, and yet 
in the end have found a firm and sure holdfast in 
the heart of God and the grace of Christ to hang 
upon with the whole weight of their soul, the 
weight of their sins hanging upon them also with 
all their pondus. Luke xxiii. 42. Matt. viii. 2. 
Zeph. ii. 3. Goodwin. 

Though we and our best works are vile, yet the 
Lord, looking upon the forehead of our High- 
priest, sees holiness engraven there ; looking upon 
the face of Christ, He there also beholds it for us, 
and becomes well-pleased with us ; and we, in the 
faith thereof, may be persuaded and assured of our 
acceptance with the Lord through the faith of 
Him. Thou that sayest there is nothing but sin 
in me, sin and vileness in all that I do ; I answer, 
It is true, the Lord can see nothing but sin in 



MISCELLANIES, 



203 



thee ; but he cannot look upon the High-priest 
but there he sees holiness, yea, the holiness of 
Jehovah there. Exod. xxviii 38. Mather, 

How should faith triumph in this ! Is not our 
High-priest in the sanctuary ? Is He not clothed 
with garments of salvation and righteousness ? 
And doth he not bear the names of his people upon 
his shoulders and upon his breast before the 
Lord ? Thy particular concernments (if thou 
art a believer) are written upon his heart, with the 
pen of a diamond, in such lasting letters of loving- 
kindness as shall never be blotted out. Isa. xlix. 
16. Ibid. 

Consider what a comprehensive blessing salva- 
tion is, and take an estimate thereof by comparing 
it with the temporal deliverance of the Israelites. 
Those proceeded from a common, ordinary love ; 
these from a peculiar, distinguishing affection : 
their deliverances were effected not without haz- 
ard of their persons : our salvation is affected 
only by the blood of Christ : the issue of theirs 
was not much more than civil tranquility, sitting 
under their vines and fig- tree ; the issue of ours is 



204 



MISCELLANIES. 



grace, glory, joy, and those things which eye hath 
not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the 
heart of man to conceive, Isa. lxiv. 4. 

Clarkson. 

The gospel's glory is, that it is the ministration 
of the Spirit. The great privilege of believers is, 
that the Lord manifests Himself to them as He 
doth not to the world : when He manifests his 
authority in the command, it is then powerful ; 
when He manifests^his goodness and truth in the 
promise, it is full of sweetness ; when He mani- 
fests his wrath in the threatening, it awes the 
soul ; when he manifests his glory in the face of 
Christ, it is ravishing, reforming, attracting. 
John i. 14. xiv. 21, 23. xvii. 6. Halyburton. 

God was in Christ reconciling the world unto 
Himself, not imputing their sins unto them, 
(2 Cor. v. 19.) Because, as God stands in rela- 
tion to man according to the tenor of the covenant 
of works, and so out of Christ, he could not, 
without prejudice to his justice, be reconciled unto 
them, nor have any thing to do with them other- 
wise than in wrath and indignation ; therefore. 



MISCELLANIES. 



205 



to the intent that justice and mercy might meet 
together, and righteousness and peace might 
embrace each other, and so God stand in relation 
to man according to the tenor of the covenant of 
grace. He put Himself into his Son Jesus Christ, 
and shrouded Himself there, that so He might 
speak peace to his people. Sweetly saith Luther, 
Because the nature of God was otherwise higher 
than we are able to attain unto, therefore hath he 
humbled Himself unto us and taken our nature 
upon Him, and so put Himself into Christ : here 
H e looketh for us, here He will receive us ; and 
he that seeketh Him here shall find Him. This, 
saith God the Father, is my well-beloved Son, in 
whom I am well-pleased, (Matt. hi. 17.) We 
must not think that this voice came from heaven 
for Christ's own sake, but for our sakes, even as 
Christ himself saith, (John xii. 30.) The truth is, 
Christ had no need that it should be said unto 
Him, This is my well-beloved Son ; He knew that 
from all eternity, and that He should still so re- 
main, though these words had not been spoken 
from heaven ; therefore by these words God the 
Father, in Christ his Son, cheereth the hearts of 

T 



206 



MISCELLANIES 



poor sinners, and greatly delighteth them with 
singular comfort and heavenly sweetness, assuring 
them, that whosoever is married unto Christ, and 
so in Him by faith, he is as acceptable to God the 
Father as Christ himself, (Eph. i. 6.) He hath 
made us accepted in the Beloved. Wherefore, if 
you would be acceptable to God, and be his dear 
child, then by faith cleave unto his beloved Son 
Christ, and hang about his neck, yea, and creep 
into his bosom ; and so shall the love and favour of 
God be as deeply insinuated into you as into 
Christ himself ; and so shall God the Father, 
together with his beloved Son, wholly possess you 
and be possessed of you ; and so God and Christ 
and you shall become entirely one, according to 
Christ's prayer, (John xvii. 22.) that they may be 
one in us, as Thou and I are One. 

Mark. Mod. Divin. 

He that can search in any measure, by a spirit- 
ual light, into his own heart and soul, will find, 
' God be merciful to me a sinner/ a better plea 
than any he can be furnished withal from any 
worth of his own. Dan. ix. 18. Owen. 

Many there are who have in notion received 



MISCELLANIES. 



207 



the doctrine of free justification by the blood of 
Christ, whom, while they are secure in their ways, 
without trouble or distress, it is impossible to per- 
suade that they do not live and act upon that 
principle, and walk before God in the strength of 
it. Let any great conviction from the word, or 
by any imminent and pressing danger, befall these 
men, then their hearts are laid open ; then all 
their hope is in their repentance, amendment of 
life, performance of duties in a better manner ; 
and the iniquity of their self-righteousness is dis- 
covered. Jonah ii. 5, 6, &c. 1 Kings xxi. 27. 

Ibid. 

God, I thank thee, I am not as other men, &c, 
is apt to creep into the heart in a striet course of 
duties. And this self-pleasing is the very root of 
self- righteousness, which as it may defile the 
saints themselves, so it will destroy those who 
only in the strength of their convictions go forth 
after an holiness and righteousness : for it quickly 
produceth the deadly poisonous effect of spiritual 
pride, which is the greatest assimilation to the 
nature of the devil that the nature of man is capa- 



208 



MISCELLANIES. 



ble of. Isa. lxv. 5. Luke xviii. 11. 2 Cor. xi. 
13. xii. 5, 9. Ibid. 

It is matter of wonder men should admit the 
report and attestation of others concerning the 
truth and reality of godliness, who yet live stran- 
gers to it themselves, yea, should be at some toil 
and pains, and come at length to be almost Chris- 
tians, without pursuing this in greater earnest. 
Matt. xiii. 20, 21. Jude 4, 10, 16. Fleming. 

Is it not strange, what a multitude in these 
times profess the truth, and yet hate it, and were 
never drawn with the cords of love ! How very 
many have courted the name of Christian, and 
have woo'd the shadow of religion, who never 
knew the truth thereof : which certainly is a con- 
vincing evidence of the gospel's conquest, that so 
many knees should bow to the name of Jesus 
whose hearts were never bowed or really subdued 
to Him. 2 Tim. hi. 5. Ibid. 

Morality is not grace ; because it doth not 
change nature : if it did, many of the heathen 
were as near to God as the best of Christians. 
Whatever may be done by the strength of nature 



MISCELLANIES, 



209 



cannot alter it ; for no nature can change itself. 
Poison may be great within the skin, like a viper's. 
Be we never so speckled with a reformation, free- 
dom from gross sins argues not a friendship for 
God. None were ever so great enemies to Christ 
as the Pharisees, to whom Christ gave no better a 
title than that of the devil's children, and charges 
them with hatred both of Himself and Father. 
John xv. 24. Charnock. 

There is nothing man does more affect in the 
w T orld than a self- sufficiency, and an independency 
on any other power than his own. This temper 
is as much riveted in his nature as any other false 
principle whatever : for man does derive it from 
his first parents, as the prime legacy bequeathed 
to his nature ; for it was the first thing discovered 
in man at his fall : he would be as God, indepen- 
dent on Him. Now God, to cross this principle, 
suffers his elect to lie in the grave till they stink, 
like Lazarus, that there may be no excuse to 
ascribe their resurrection to their own power. 
God lets men run so far in sin, that they do un- 
man themselves, that He may proclaim to all the 



210 



MISCELLANIES. 



world that we are unable to do any thing of our- 
selves towards our recovery, without a superior 
principle, (Jer. ii. 31. 2 Cor. hi. 5. Job xxi. 
14.) To turn to God in ways of righteousness is 
contrary to the stream of corrupt nature ; and 
therefore it must be overpowered by a flood of 
almighty grace, as the stream of the river is by 
the tide of the sea. Therefore, when you see a 
man cast away his pleasures, deprive himself of 
those contentments to which his soul was once 
knit, and walk in paths contrary to corrupt nature, 
you may search for the cause any where rather 
than in nature itself. Jer. xiii. 23. Eph. i. 19. 
1 Pet. i. 4. Ibid. 

We believe this day the resurrection of the 
dead, and an undoubted accomplishment of that 
truth which to natural reason would seem a strange 
contradiction, But should we not consider that 
the same truth, though in a spiritual way, yet 
most visible and upon a higher account, is verified 
before our eyes ; how it is sure, such are quick- 
ened and brought to life who were dead in their 
sins, were past feeling, yea, for many years have 



MISCELLANIES 



211 



lain as in a cold grave, without sense of God or 
their own case, who in one moment, at the voice 
of the word, have been made to stir and arise ! 
And is not this something as discernibly above 
nature, or the influence of second causes, yea, as 
marvellous an act of divine power as the resurrec- 
tion of the dead in the last day, which seems to 
some such a dark and strange thing to believe ? 
John v. 25. xi. 25. Eph. v. 14. Fleming. 

God's creating power drew the world out of 
nothing, but his converting power frames the new 
creature out of something worse than nothing. 
What power must that be which can stop the tide 
of the sea, and make it suddenly recoil back ? 
What a vast power must that be that can change 
a black cloud into a glorious sun ? This and more 
doth God do in conversion ; he doth not only take 
smooth pieces of the softest matter, but the rug- 
gedest timber, full of knots, to plain, and shew his 
strength and art upon. It is not so great a work 
to raise many thousands killed in battle as to 
gospelize one dead soul. 2 Cor. iv. 6. Eph. i. 
19. ii. 1, 5, Charnock. 

t 4 



212 



MISCELLANIES. 



The most refined and ingenious sort of unre- 
generate men have nothing in them which is more 
excellent than common grace ; and common grace 
leaves them in a state of nature, under the power 
of sin, and in the very suburbs of hell, wholly at 
the command of Satan. And if any man think 
otherwise, let him take heed that very thought 
doth not nail him fast to that unregenerate and 
cursed state for evermore, 1 Cor. i. 19 — 29. 

Chenelles. 

Heavenly things exceed the reach of reason, for 
they are above right reason : they are contrary to 
the wisdom of the flesh, for they are against de- 
praved nature. Nature stands in need of grace, 
that the faculties may be rightly disposed to 
receive supernatural objects ; and grace uses 
nature, that by the clearness of the mind, the per- 
spicuity of the judgment, and the light of good 
learning, the progress in the study of the Holy 
Scriptures may be more successful. 1 Cor. ii. 14. 
2 Tim. hi. 14, 15. Reynolds. 

Tf a man who had been scorched in hell should 
again enjoy his wonted pleasures, and have all the 



MISCELLANIES, 



213 



while a fresh remembrance of his late torments, 
were not his will changed by powerful grace, he 
would stand it out as stiffly against God as ever, 
notwithstanding those terrible marks of wrath, 
and be without a holy fear of that justice which he 
had felt. Prov. xxvii. 22. Rev. xvi. 9, 11. 

Charnock. 

What is the reason carnal men leave Christ for 
the pleasures of the w r orld ? Because the plea- 
sures of the world are real things to them. 
Therefore, unless God make the things of another 
world real too, a man will never leave realities for 
notions. All that reason or notions can repre- 
sent of Christ will never take a man's heart off 
from the real things he sees here below ; and 
therefore God comes and weighs down the reality 
of the things of this world by the reality of the 
things of the other world. Prov. iii. 17. via; 
19, 35. Jer. xxiii, 28. Goodwin. 

You may as soon wash a blackmoor w r hite, as 
cleanse a defiled conscience by duties, ordinances, 
and moral endeavours, without Christ : yea, they 
will but make thee worse : for the Lord will not 



214 



MISCELLANIES. 



bless them, when carnally trusted to and rested in, 
without Christ. Jer. ii. 22 ♦ xhi. 23. John xv. 5. 

Mather. 

Seeking a pure life without a pure nature is 
building without a foundation : and no seeking a 
new nature from the law ; for it bids make bricks 
without straw, and faith to the cripple, walk, 
without giving any strength. Jer. xiii. 23. Rom. 
viii. 8. Marshal. 

All unregenerate persons whether Jews or 
Gentiles, will have a fling at the gospel ; it is con- 
trary to them, and they are contrary to it ; they 
cannot reach the mystery of it, and therefore do 
slight and contemn it. But all who are effectually 
called, and savingly enlightened, do highly prize 
it : they see much of the power and wisdom of 
God in that excellent contrivance of man's salva- 
tion by Christ ; they desire to know nothing but 
Christ, and Him crucified. 1 Cor. ii. 14. 2 Cor. 
iv. 3. T. Cole. 

The reason of an unregenerate man's unwilling- 
ness to holy duties lies in this, that they are 
appointed, and the tendency of them is, to bring 



MISCELLANIES 



215 



God and their hearts together; which is indeed to 
bring two enemies together ; for such are their 
hearts and God. And the reason of a regenerat e 
man's willingness is, that in the duty two friends 
meet together ; God, who hath from everlasting 
owned the soul, and the soul who hath chosen 
God to be his God. Job. xxi. 14. Psalm lxxiii. 
25. xliii. 4. Goodwin. 

Consider with thyself, when thou comes t to die, 
what wilt thou say then ? Satan will come then 
and lay thy sins to thy charge. Thou must think 
what thou hast to answer. Thou hast nothing to 
say but, I am in Christ. ^Yell ; but how dost 
thou prove that ? He will ask thee that question, 
Art thou a new creature ? If thou flndest that 
thou art not a new creature, thou art not in 
Christ ; and thou needest not a new condemna- 
tion, thou art condemned already, (John hi. 3, 18.) 
Xow examine, Canst thou do that which no man 
else can do, that is a mere natural man ? Thou 
must have a strength put into thee which none 
can reach that hath nothing but nature in him. 
Canst thou love the Lord Jesus and the saints r 



216 



MISCELLANIES. 



An hypocrite can counterfeit many things, but not 
love. Again, canst thou delight in the law of 
God in the inward man ? I ask not if thou canst 
approve of it ; but canst thou delight in it, count- 
ing it as thy meat and drink to do the will of thy 
Father ? This is a thing which cannot be coun- 
terfeited. So, canst thou deny thyself ? I ask 
not if thou canst deny this or that particular sin, 
but the whole body of sin ; if thou favourest the 
things of the Spirit ; if thou canst mortify the 
deeds of the body, and walk according to the 
Spirit ? If thou art a new creature, thou must 
find thyself able to do that which no natural man 
can do, and which thyself could never do before. 
For otherwise, What wilt thou answer for thyself 
when the destroying angel shall come ? If he 
find not in thee more than nature, the destruction 
shall pass on thee : as it was in the passover ; 
except there was found blood on the door-posts, 
they died for it. Now the blood that this destroy- 
ing angel must see, when he shall pass over the 
world, is that which is more than nature : you 
mast know the blood of Christ leaves an impres- 



MISCELLANIES. 



217 



sion : their garments were made white in the 
blood of the Lamb ; that is, not only the guilt of 
sin is taken away, hut a new virtue is put on 
them, a new efficacy is put into them : and if thou 
hast not the virtue of the blood of Christ as well 
to purge thy conscience from dead works as to 
take away the guilt of sin, all is nothing. I sav. 
except thou art a new creature, the destroying 
angel shall not spare thee, but thy sins shall be 
cast on thy conscience : and, when God shall cas* 
it on thy conscience, what wilt thoa say ? If thou 
find not these two things, a weakening of this old 
nature, an healing of sin, and something more 
than nature, thou canst not apply the comfort of 
justification, then art not in Christ: for thou art 
not a new creature, which consists of these two 
parts, vivification and mortification. Rom. vi, 
22. viii. 5, 6. 2 Cor. v. 17. vi. 17. Eph. iL 
10. iv. 22—24. v. 27. Col. i. 21. 2 Tim. m 
19. Przstgn, 
There is nothing that doth truly and unfeign- 
edly root wickedness out of the heart of man, but 
only the true tranquility of the mind, or the rest 
of the soul in God. And to say as the thing is, 

u 



218 



MISCELLANIES. 



This is such a peace and such a rest to the crea- 
ture in the Creator, that, according to the measure 
of its establishment by faith, no created compre- 
hensible thing can either add to it or detract from 
it : the increase of a kingdom cannot augment it, 
the greatest losses and crosses in worldly things 
cannot diminish it. A believer's good works do 
all flow from it. Neither sin nor Satan, law nor 
conscience, hell nor grave, can quite extinguish it : 
for it is the Lord alone that maintains it. It is 
the pleasant face of God in Christ that puts glad- 
ness into his heart, (Psalm iv. 7.) and when that 
face is hid, then is he troubled. (Psalm xxx. 7.) 
Though the peace and joy of true believers may 
be extenuated or diminished, yet doth the testi- 
mony of their being, in nature remain so strong, 
that they could still say, yea, even when they 
have felt God to be withdrawing Himself from 
them, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me. (Psalm xxii. 1 ) Yea, and in the night of 
God's absence to remain confident, that though 
sorrow be over night, yet joy will come in the 
morning ; nay, though the Lord should seem to 
kill them with unkindness, yet will they put their 



MISCELLANIES. 



219 



trust in Him, knowing that, for all this, their 
Redeemer liveth ; so strong is their joy in the 
Lord. These are the people that are kept in per- 
fect peace, because their minds are stayed on the 
Lord. (Isa. xxvi. 3.) Wherefore take heed of 
deeming any state happy, until you come to find 
this true peace and rest to your souls in God. 
Hos. vi. 1. Isa. xlviii. 22. Job xiii. 15, 19, 
25. Mare. Mod. Divin. 

The principal design of their whole lives, to 
whom Christ is precious, is to acquaint themselves 
with Him : the mystery of the wisdom, grace, and 
love of God in his person and mediation, as 
revealed unto us in the scripture, w T hich is life 
eternal, (John xvii. 3.) to trust in Him and unto 
Him as to all the everlasting concernments of 
their souls, to love and honour Him with all their 
hearts, to endeavour after conformity unto Him 
in all those characters of divine goodness and 
holiness which are represented unto them in Him. 
In these things consist the soul, life, power, beauty 
and excellency, and efficacy of the Christian reli- 
gion ; without which, whatever outward ornaments 



220 



MISCELLANIES. 



may be put upon its exercise, it is but a useless, 
lifeless carcass. Phil. iii. 8 — 12. Owen. 

Doctrines of the greatest weight are talked of 
and treated about with a vain, unconcerned frame 
of spirit, as if men contended about opinions and 
school-points, rather than about the oracles of 
God and matters of faith. But if men's hearts 
were seen by themselves, if sin were felt, if men's 
consciences were enlivened, if God's holy law 
were known in its exactness and severity, and the 
glory and the majesty of the lawgiver shining be- 
fore men's eyes, if men were living as leaving time 
and launching forth into eternity, the gospel 
salvation by Jesus Christ would be more regarded. 
Acts xvi. 29, 30. Mic. vi. 6, 7. Trail. 

The greatest genius in the world would have 
found it impossible to effect so much, without a 
sacred regard to method ; in this Dr. Mather was 
studiously exact. That all his pursuits might have 
their proper places, he used to propose to himself 
a certain question in the morning of every day, in 
the following order : — 

Sabbath morning. What shall I do, as a pastor 



MISCELLANIES. 



221 



of a church, for the good of the flock under my 
charge ? 

Monday. What shall I do in my family, and 
for the good of it : 

Tuesday. What shall I do for my relations 
abi oad ? 

Wednesday . What shall I do for the churches 
of the Lord, and the more general interest of reli- 
gion in the world ? 

Thursday. What good may I do in the several 
societies to which I belong ? 

Friday. What special subjects of affliction, 
and objects of compassion, may I take under my 
particular care, and what shall I do for them ? 

Saturday. What more have I to do for the in- 
terest of God, in my own heart and life ? 

Mather, 

Perturbations, sorrows, dread, dejections, fears, 
are no duty unto any ; only they are such things 
as sometimes ensue, or are immitted into the 
mind, upon that which is a duty indispensible, 
namely, the conviction of sin. They belong not 
to the precept of the law, hut to its curse ; thev 



222 



MISCELLANIES . 



are no part of what is required of us, but 
of what is inflicted on us, There is a gospel 
sorrow and humiliation after believing that is 
a duty, that is both commanded and hath 
promises annexed to it ; but this legal sorrow 
is an effect of the curse of the law, not of 
its command. And God is pleased to exercise a 
prerogative and sovereignty in this whole matter, 
and deals with the souls of men in an unspeakable 
variety. Some he leads by the gates of death and 
hell to rest in his love, like the people of old, 
through the waste and howling wilderness into 
Canaan ; and the paths of others He makes plain 
and easy to them : some walk or wander long in 
darkness ; in the souls of others Christ is formed 
in the first gracious visitation. 2 Cor. vii. 9, 10. 

Owen. 

Our whole life should speak nothing but thank- 
fulness ; every condition and place we are in 
should be a witness of our thankfulness ; this will 
make the times and places we live in the better 
for us. When we ourselves are monuments of 
mercy, it is fit we should be patterns of his 



MISCELLANIES. 



223 



praises, and leave monuments to others. We 
should think life is given us to do something better 
than to live in : we live, not to live ; our life is not 
the end of itself, but the praise of the Giver. God 
hath joined his glory and our happiness together : 
it is fit that we should refer all that is good to his 
glory, who hath joined his glory to our best good 
in being glorified in our salvation, (Psalm L 14. 
cxvi. 17.) Praise is a just and due tribute for all 
God's blessings ; for what else do the best favours 
of God especially call for at our hands ? How do 
all creatures praise God but by our mouths ? It 
is a debt always owing, and always paying ; and 
the more we pay, the more we shall owe : upon 
the due discharge of this debt, the soul will find 
much peace. A thankful heart to God for his 
blessings is the greatest blessing of all. Were it 
not for a few gracious souls, what honour should 
God have of the rest of the unthankful world ? 
which should stir us up the more to be trumpets 
of God's praises in the midst of his enemies ; 
because this (in some sort) hath a prerogative 
above our praising God in heaven ; for there God 

u 4 



224 



MISCELLANIES. 



hath no enemies to dishonour him. Psalm cxlv. 
10 — 12. cxlviii. el. Sibbs. 

It is good to see blessings as they issue from 
grace and mercy. It much commends any bless- 
ing to see the love and favour of God in it, which 
is more to be valued than the blessing itself. 
Psalm lxiii. 3. Ibid. 

There is a most excellent suitableness and con- 
gruity betwixt repentance and remission of sins, 
without prejudice to the freedom of God's grace, 
since God gives repentance as well as requires it, 
and makes his people what He would have them 
to be. Acts hi. 19. Ezek. xvi. 60 — 63. xxxvi. 26. 

Fleming. 

The principal and adequate reason of all divine 
worship, and that which makes it such, is what 
God is in Himself. Because He is, namely, an 
infinitely glorious good, wise, holy, powerful, 
righteous, self- subsisting, self-sufficient, all-suffi- 
cient Being, the Fountain, Cause, and Author of 
life and being to all things, and of all that is good 
in every kind, the First Cause, Last End, and 
absolutely sovereign Lord of all, the Rest and 



MISCELLANIES 



•225 



all- satisfactory Reward of all other beings ; there- 
fore is He by us to be adored and worshipped with 
divine and religious worship : hence are we in our 
hearts, minds, and souls, to admire, adore, and 
love Him ; his praises are we to celebrate, Him to 
trust and fear, and so to resign ourselves and all 
our concernments unto his will and disposal ; to 
regard Him with all the acts of our wills and per- 
sons, answerably to the holy properties of his 
nature. This it is to glorify' Him as God. Psalm 
cxiii. cxlv. cxlvii. Rev. iv. 11. v. 13. xv. 3, 4. 

Owen. 

Acts flowing from a living principle within do 
carry their own evidence along with them, giving 
a pleasing sensation of their truth and reality, as 
the genuine off- spring of the heart, which nothing 
that is forced or counterfeit can do. Rom. viii. 
16. 2 Cor v. 14, 15. T. Cole, 

It is now many years since the apostate angels 
made a question whether their will or the will of 
their Creator should be done : and since that time 
froward man hath always in that same suit united 
to plead with them against God in daily repining 
against his will. But the Lord, being both Party 



226 



MISCELLANIES. 



and Judge, hath obtained a decree, and saith, 
(Isa. xlvi. 10.) My counsel shall stand, and I 
will do all my pleasure. It is then best for us, in 
the obedience of faith and in an holy submission, 
to give that to God which the law of bis almighty 
and just power will have of us. Psalm xxxiii. 11. 
Rom. ix. 20. Rutherfoord. 

It is not the want of religious houses, but of 
spiritual hearts, that glues the wing of our affec- 
tions, and hinders the more frequent practice of 
this leading precept of the divine law — fervently 
to lift up our souls unto God, and to have our 
conversation in heaven. Archbishop Leighton. 

Better minds, would make better memories. 

Ibid. 

It is not the gilded paper, and good writing of 
a petition that prevails with a king, but the 
moving sense of it. And to that King who dis- 
cerns the heart, heart- sense is the sense of all, 
and that which only He regards. Ibid. 

There is a certain company of small stars in the 
firmament, which, though they cannot be each 
one severally seen, yet, being many, their united 



MISCELLANIES 



227 



light makes a conspicuous brightness in the 
heavens, which is called the milky way : so, 
though the shining of every private Christian, is 
not so much severally remarkable, yet, the con- 
course, and uniting of their light together, will 
make a bright path of holiness shine in the 
Church. Ibid. 

Were we more in the mount with God, our 
faces would shine more with men. Ibid. 

The light of the sun is neither parted nor 
diminished, by being imparted to many several 
people and nations, that behold it at one time : 
nor is the righteousness of this Sun of righteous- 
ness, either lessened to Himself, or to individual 
believers, by many partaking of it at once ; it is 
wholly conferred upon each of them, and remains 
whole in himself. Hence it is, that not only 
Christ invites so liberally, sinners to come to Him, 
but even justified persons would so gladly draw 
all others to lay hold on the righteousness of their 
Redeemer ; knowing well, that if all the world 
were enriched by it, they themselves would be no 
whit the poorer. Ibid. 

It is not the composition of prayer, or the 



228 



MISCELLANIES. 



eloquence of expression that is the sweetness of it 
in God's account, and makes it a sacrifice of a 
pleasing smell or sweet odour to him, but the 
breathing forth of the desire of the heart. Incense 
can neither smell, nor ascend without fire ; no 
more doth prayer unless it arises from a bent of 
spiritual affection : it is that, which both makes it 
smell, and sends it heavenwards, makes it never 
leave moving upwards till it come before God, 
and smell sweet in his nostrils, which few, too 
few of our prayers do. Ibid. 

The impenitency of men, in any condition, and 
particularly under distress, is from the want of 
clear apprehensions and deep persuasions of God, 
of his just anger provoked by their sins, and of 
His sweetness and readiness to forgive and em- 
brace a returning sinner ; of His sovereign power, 
able to rid them out of the greatest trouble, His 
ear, quick enough to hear the cries, yea, the least 
whispering of a humbled heart in the lowest deep 
of his sorrow, and His arm, long enough to reach 
them, and strong enough to draw them forth. 

That flower which follows the sun, doth so 
even in cloudy days : when it doth not not shine 



MISCELLANIES . 



'229 



forth, yet it follows the hidden course and motion 
of it. So, the soul that moves after God, keeps 
that course, when He hides His face ; is content, 
yea, is glad at His will in all estates, or conditions, 
or events. Ibid. 

In meditation, those, which begin heavenly 
thoughts, and prosecute them not, are like those 
which kindle a fire under green wood, and leave it, 
so soon as it but begins to flame ; leesing the hope 
of a good beginning, for want of seconding it with 
a suitable proceeding : when I set myself to medi- 
tate, I will not give over, till I come to an issue. 
It hath been said by some, that the beginning is 
as much as the midst ; yea, more than all: but I 
say, the ending is more than the beginning. 

Bishop Hall. 

I see there is no man so happy as to have all 
things ; and no man so miserable, as not to have 
some. Why should I look for a better condition 
than all others ? If I have somewhat, and that of 
the best things ; I will in thankfulness enjoy them, 
and want the rest with contentment. Ibid, 

When I cast down mine eyes upon my wants, 
upon my sins, upon my miseries ; methinks no 

x 



230 



MISCELLANIES. 



man should be worse, no man so ill as I ; my 
means so many, so forcible, and almost violent; 
my progress so small, and insensible ; my cor- 
ruptions so strong, my infirmities so frequent and 
remediless ; my body so unanswerable to my mind. 
But when I look up to the blessings that God 
hath enriched me withal, methinks I should soon 
be induced to think none more happy than myself : 
God is my friend, and my father ; the world not 
my master, but my slave; I have friends, not 
many, but so tried, that I dare trust them ; an 
estate not superfluous, not needy ; yet nearer to 
defect, than abundance ; a calling, if despised of 
men, yet honorable with God ; a body not so 
strong, as to admit security, (but often checking 
me in occasion of pleasure) nor yet so weak, as to 
afflict me continually ; a mind not so furnished 
with knowledge, that I may boast of it ; nor yet 
so naked, that I should despair of obtaining it : 
my miseries afford me joy, mine enemies advan- 
tage ; my account is cast up for another world. 
And if thou think I have said too much good of 
myself, either I am thus, or I would be. Ibid. 
I have seldom seen much ostentation, and much 



MISCELLANIES. 



231 



learning met together. The Sun, rising and de- 
clining makes long shadows ; at mid-day when he 
is at highest, none at all. Besides that, skill 
when it is too much shown, loseth the grace ; as 
fresh coloured wares, if they be often opened, lose 
their brightness, and are soiled with much hand- 
ling. I had rather applaud myself for having 
much, that 1 shew not ; than that others should 
applaud me for shewing more than I have. Ibid. 

If I die, the world shall miss me but a little ; I 
shall miss it less. Not it me, because it hath such 
store of better men ; not I it, because it hath so 
much ill, and I shall have so much happiness. 

Ibid. 

Every worldling is an hypocrite ; for while his 
face naturally looks upward to heaven, his heart 
grovels beneath on the earth : yet if I would ad- 
mit of any discord in the inward and outward 
parts ; I would have an heart that should look up 
to heaven in an holy contemplation of the things 
above, and a countenance cast down to the earth, 
in humiliation. The only dissimilitude is pleasing 
to God. Ibid. 

There are not wanting those who live in con- 



232 



MISCELLANIES. 



stant doubt and trembling, because they do not 
enjoy the constant presence of God, and the 
uniform fervency of affection in their retirements. 
Real Christians have seasons of coldness which 
chill the spirit of devotion. Such is the power of 
indwelling sin ; so great is the influence of the 
world, the flesh, and the devil ; that even God's 
own children are sometimes carried far down the 
current. To the shame and guilt of God's people, 
we are constrained to make this affecting acknow- 
ledgment. Still, real Christians cannot live in the 
neglect of prayer ; nay, more, those who not pos- 
sess the spirit, and live in the habitual performance 
of the duty, are ' in the gall of bitterness, and the 
bonds of iniquity,/ The moment a man begins to 
live in the neglect of prayer, that moment he 
should take the alarm. 

I see men point the field, and desperately 
jeopard their lives (as prodigal of their blood) in 
the revenge of a disgraceful word against them- 
selves ; while they can be content to hear God 
pulled out of heaven with blasphemy, and not feel 
so much as a rising of their blood. Which argues 
our cold love to God, and our over fervent affec- 



MISCELLANIES 



233 



tion to ourselves. In mine own wrongs, I will 
hold patience laudable, but in God's injuries, 
impious. Bishop Hall. 

He that lives well, cannot choose but die well. 
For, if he dies suddenly, yet he dies not unpre- 
paredly : if by leisure, the conscience of his well- 
lead life makes his death more comfortable : but 
it is seldom seen, that he which liveth ill, dieth 
well. For the conscience of his former evils, his 
present pain, and the expectation and fear of 
greater, so take up his heart, that he cannot seek 
God. And now it is just with God, not to be 
sought, or not to be found, because he sought to 
him in his life- time, and was repulsed. Whereas 
therefore; there are usually two main cares of good 
men, to live well, and die well ; I will have but 
this one, to live well. Ibid. 

I had rather confess my ignorance, than falsely 
profess knowledge. It is no shame, not to know 
all things, but it is a just shame to over-reach in 
any thing. Ibid. 

I brought sin enough with me into the world to 
repent of all my life, though I should never act- 
uallv sin ; and sin enough actually every day, to 



234 



MISCELLANIES. 



sorrow for, though I had brought none with me 
into the world ; but laying both together, my time 
is rather too short for my repentance. It were 
madness in me to spend my whole life in jollity 
and pleasure, whereof I have so small occasion ; 
and neglect the opportunity of my so just sorrow ; 
especially, since before I came into the world, I 
sinned ; after I am gone out of the world, the con- 
tagion of my sin past, shall add to the guilt of it ; 
yet, in both these estates, I am incapable of repent- 
ance. I will do that while I may, which, when I 
have neglected, is unrecoverable. Ibid. 

It is not possible but a conceited man must be a 
fool. For, that over-weaning opinion he hath of 
himself, excludes all opportunity of purchasing 
knowledge. Let a vessel be once full of never so 
base liquor, it will not give room to the costliest ; 
but spills beside, whatsoever is infused. The proud 
man, though he be empty of good substance, yet 
is full of conceit. Many men had proved wise, if 
they had not so thought themselves. I am empty 
enough to receive knowledge enough ; let me 
think myself but so bare as I am, and more I need 
not. O Lord, do thou teach me how little, how 



MISCELLANIES, 



23r 



nothing I have ; and give me no more, than I 
know I want. Ibid. 

Every man hath his turn of sorrow ; whereby 
(some more, some less) all men are in their times 
miserable. I never yet could meet with the man 
that complained not of somewhat. Before sorrow 
come, I will prepare for it ; when it is come, I will 
welcome it ; when it goes, I will take but half a 
farewell of it ; as still expecting his return. Ibid. 

Every sickness is a little death. I will be con- 
tent to die oft, that I may die once well. Ibid. 

I will not be so merry, as to forget God ; not so 
sorrowful, to forget myself. Ibid. 

The whole life of our Redeemer was one con- 
tinued line of suffering, from the manger to the 
cross. All that lay betwixt was suitable : his 
state and entertainment throughout his whole life, 
agreed well with so mean a beginning, and so re- 
proachful an end of it. Forced upon a flight, 
while he could not go, and living, till he appeared 
in public, in a very mean despised condition, as 
the carpenter's son ; and, afterwards, his best 
works paid with envy and revilings, called a 'wine 
bibber,' ' and a caster out of devils by the prince 

x 4 



236 



MISCELLANIES. 



of devils ;' his life often laid in wait and sought 
for. Art thou mean in thy birth and life, despised, 
misjudged, and reviled, on all hands ? Look how 
it was with Him, who had more right than thou 
hast, to better entertainment in the world. Thou 
wilt not deny it was his own ; ' it was made by 
Him, and he was in it, and it knew him not.' Are 
thy friends harsh to thee ? * He came unto his 
own, and his own received him not/ Hast thou 
a mean cottage, or art thou driven from it, and 
hast no dwelling, and art thou every way poor and 
ill- accommodated ? He was as poor as thou canst 
be, ' and had not where to lay his head/ — worse 
provided than the ' birds' and ' foxes !' But then, 
consider to what a height his sufferings rose in the 
end, that most remarkable part of them meant by 
his • once suffering for sins/ If thou shouldst be 
cut off by a violent death, or in the prime of thy 
years, mayst thou not look upon him as going be- 
fore thee in both these ? And in so ignominious 
a way ! Scourged, buffeted, and spit on, he 
endured all, 'he gave his back to the smiters/ and 
then, as the same prophet hath it, ' He was num- 
bered amongst the transgressors/ (Isa. liii. 12.) 



MISCELLANIES. 



237 



When they had used him with all that shame, they 
hanged him betwixt two thieves, and they that 
passed by ' wagged their heads/ and darted taunts 
at him, as at a mark fixed to the cross : * they 
scoffed and said, He saved others, himself he can- 
not save/ * He endured the cross, and despised 
the shame/ says the apostle. Heb. xii. 2. 

Leighton. 

The difference between believers and unbeliev- 
ers, as to knowledge, is not so much in the matter 
of their knowledge as in the manner of knowing. 
Unbelievers, some of them, may know more and 
be able to say more of God, his perfections and 
will, than many believers ; but they know nothing 
as they ought, nothing in a right manner, nothing 
spiritually and savingly, nothing with a holy, 
heavenly light. The excellency of a believer is 
not that he hath large apprehensions of things, 
but that what he doth apprehend (which may per- 
haps be very little) he sees it in the light of the 
Spirit of God, in a saving, soul-transforming light. 
And this is that which gives us communion with 
God, and not prying thoughts, or curious raised 
notions. Psalm ix. 10. Owen. 



238 



MISCELLANIES. 



Seeing men cannot get the doctrine of God's 
justice blotted out of the Bible, yet it is such an 
eye-sore to them, that they strive to blot it out of 
their minds ; and they ruin themselves by pre- 
suming on his mercy, while they are not careful to 
get a righteousness wherein they may stand before 
his justice ; but say in, their hearts, The Lord will 
not do good, neither will He do evil. Zeph. i. 12. 

Boston. 

No man, without the light of saving faith, can 
constantly and universally approve of the revela- 
tion of the will of God, as unto our holiness and 
obedience. Owen. 

When men live to themselves, and are satisfied 
that they do no hurt, though they do no good, are 
secure* selfish, wrathful, angry, peevish, or have 
their kindness confined to their relations, or other- 
wise are but little useful but in what they are prest 
unto, and therein come off with difficulty in their 
own minds ; who esteem all lost that is done for 
others, and the greatest part of wisdom to be 
cautious, and disbelieve the necessities of men ; 
that make self and its concernments the end of 
their lives ; whatever otherwise their profession 



MISCELLANIES. 



239 



may be, or their diligence in religious duties, they 
do very little either represent or glorify God in the 
world. Matt. v. 16. John xiii. 35. James iii. 
17. Ibid. 

In nothing more are men subject to mistakes 
than in the application of things to themselves, 
and a judgment of their interest in them. Fear, 
self-love, with the prevalency of temptations and 
corruptions, do all engage their powers to darken 
the light of the mind, and to pervert its judgment. 
In no case doth the deceitfulness of the heart or of 
sin more act itself. Hence, multitudes say peace 
to themselves, to. whom God doth not say peace ; 
and some who are children of light do yet walk in 
darkness. Prov. xiii. 7. Isa. iii. 10. xlviii. 22. 

Ibid. 

I have nothing to do with the devil, neither 
hath he given me any disturbance all the time of 
my sickness. But, be it so, let him come, let him 
attack me, and try his strength upon me a poor 
miserable sinner ; I will not therefore despond in 
my mind ; for I know that I have not sinned 
against him, but against my God ; wherefore, 
following the example of the Israelites in the wil- 



240 



MISCELLANIES. 



derness, I will shew to him not the brazen serpent 
indeed, but the Son of God hanging upon the 
cross ; and I will say, it is against this Person I 
have sinned, and not against thee ; to Him I 
wholly commit myself, for I believe He hath paid 
a sufficient price to God the Father for my sins. 
Wherefore, be gone, O devil, and turn thy darts 
against the Seed of the woman ; if you overcome 
Him, you overcome me also. Psalm lxviii. 18. 
Phil. ii. 8, 9. Heb. ii. 14. S. Gesner. 

O it is a sweet at all times, especially at such a 
time, to see the reconciled face of God through 
Jesus Christ, and hear the voice of peace through 
the blood of the cross. 2 Tim. i. 12. Flavel. 

O Lord God, I thank Thee that Thou wouldst 
have me to be poor and a beggar upon the earth ; 
I have no house, land, possession, or money, to 
leave. Thou hast given me a wife and children ; 
to Thee I return them ; nourish, teach, and save 
them, as hitherto Thou hast me, O Father of the 
fatherless, and Judge of the widows ! O my 
heavenly Father, the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, the God of all consolations, I thank 
Thee that Thou hast revealed thy Son Jesus 



MISCELLANIES. 



24 1 



Christ to me, on whom I have believed, whom I 
have professed, whom I have loved, whom I have 
celebrated ; whom the bishop of Rome and all the 
multitude of the wicked do persecute and reproach . 
I pray Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ receive my 
soul. My heavenly Father, although I am taken 
out of this life, though I must now lay down this 
body, yet I certainly know that I shall dwell with 
Thee for ever, neither can I by any be plucked out 
of thine hands. God so loved the world that He 
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
lieveth in Him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life. John hi. 16. x. 28. 2 Tim. iv. 
9-8. 

Martin Luther's last will and prayer. 
Ex Melch. Adam. 
I have more than a thousand times vowed to 
God that I would mend ; but I never performed 
what I promised ; for the future I will vow no 
more, because I have learned by experience that I 
cannot perform. And unless God be propitious to 
me for Christ's sake, and grant me a happy hour 
when I shall depart this life, I shall never be able 

Y 



242 



MISCELLANIES. 



to stand with my vows and good works. Tit. hi. 
5, 6. Staupicius, a German divine. 

Seeing all things shall be quickly at an end, 
even the frame of heaven and earth, why should 
we, knowing this, and having higher hopes, lay 
out so much of our desires and endeavours upon 
those things that are posting to ruin ? It is no 
hard notion, to be sober and watchful to prayer, 
to be trading that way, and seeking higher things, 
and to be very moderate in these, which are of so 
short a date. As in themselves and their utmost 
term, they are of short duration, so more evidently 
to each of us in particular, who are so ' soon cut 
off, and flee away.' Why should our hearts cleave 
to those things from which we shall so quickly 
part, and from which, if we will not freely part 
and let them go, we shall be pulled away, and 
pulled with the more pain, the closer we cleave, 
and the faster we are glued to them ? Leighton. 

Every worldling is a mad man. For, besides 
that he preferreth profit and pleasure to virtue, the 
world to God, earth to heaven, time to eternity ; 
he pampers the body, and starves the soul. He 



MISCELLANIES 



243 



feeds one fowl an hundred times, that it may feed 
him but once ; and seeks all lands and seas for 
dainties, not caring whether any, or what repast 
he provideth for his soul, He clothes the body 
with all rich ornaments, that it may be as fair 
without as it is filthy within ; whilst his soul goes 
bare and naked, having not a rag of knowledge to 
cover it. Yea, he cares not to destroy his soul, 
to please the body, when for the salvation of the 
soul, he will not so much as hold the body short 
of the least pleasure. What is, if this be not. a 
reasonable kind of madness ? Let me enjoy my 
soul no longer, than I prefer it to my body. Let 
me have a deformed, lean, crooked, unhealthful, 
neglected body ; so that I may find my soul sound, 
strong, well furnished, well disposed both for 
earth and heaven. Bishop Hall. 

A man's best monument is his virtuous actions. 
Foolish is the hope of immortality, and future 
praise, by the cost of senseless stone ; when the 
passenger shall only say, here lies a fair stone, and 
a filthy carcase. That only can report the rich : 
but for other praises, thyself must build thy mon- 
ument alive ; and write thy own epitaph in honest 



244 



MISCELLANIES* 



and honorable actions. Which are so much more 
noble than the other, as living men are better 
than dead stones ; nay, I know not if the other 
be not the way to work a perpetual succession of 
infamy, whilst the censorious reader, upon occa- 
sion thereof, shall comment upon thy bad life ; 
whereas in this, every man's heart is a tomb, and 
every man's tongue writeth an epitaph upon the 
well-behaved. Either I will procure me such a 
monument, to be remembered by ; or else it is 
better to be inglorious, than infamous. 

Ibid. 

There is no man so happy as the Christian. 
When he looks up unto heaven, he thinks, that is 
my home ; the God that made it, and owes it, is 
my father ; the angels, more glorious in nature 
than myself, are my attendants ; mine enemies are 
my vessels. Yea, those things which are the 
most terrible to the wicked, are most pleasant to 
him. When he hears God thunder above his 
head, he thinks, this is the voice of my father. 
When he remembereth the tribunal of the last 
judgment, he thinks, it is my Saviour that sits in 
it ; when death, he esteems it but as the angel set 



MISCELLANIES 



•245 



before paradise ; which with one blow admits him 
to eternal joy. And (which is most of all) nothing 
in earth or hell can make him miserable. There 
is nothing in the world worth envying, but a 
Christian. Ibid. 

Through wisdom is an house builded, and by 
understanding it is established. And by know- 
ledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious 
and pleasant riches. A wise man is strong ; yea, 
a man of knowledge increaseth strength. My 
Son, eat thou honey, because it is good ; and the 
honey-comb, which is sweet to thy taste. So 
shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul : 
when thou hast found it, then there shall be a re- 
ward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off. 
Prov. xxiv. 3, 4, 5, 13, 14. Flavel. 

If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up 
thy voice for understanding ; If thou seekest her 
as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures ; 
Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, 
and find the knowledge of God. Prov. ii. 3 — 5. 

Ibid. 

And God said to Solomon, because this was in 
thine heart, and thou hast not asked riches, wealth., 



246 



MISCELLANIES. 



or honour, nor the life of thine enemies, neither 
yet has asked long life ; but hast asked wisdom 
and knowledge for thyself, that thou mayest judge 
my people, over whom I have made thee king ; 
Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee ; and 

1 will give thee riches, and wealth, and honour. 

2 Chron. i. 11, 12. Ibid. 
How comes it to pass that so many signal mer- 
cies and deliverances have befallen the people of 
God, above the power and against the course of 
natural causes ; to make way for which, there 
hath been a sensible suspension and stop put to the 
course of nature ? It is most evident that no natu- 
ral effect can exceed the power of its natural cause. 
Nothing can give to another more than it hath in 
itself; and it is as clear, that whatsoever acts 
naturally, acts necessarily. Fire burns to the ut- 
most of its power ; waters overflow and drown all 
that they can. Lions, and other rapacious and 
cruel beasts, tear and devour their prey, especially 
when hungry ; and as to arbitrary and rational 
agents, they also act according to the principles 
and laws of their natures. A wicked man, when 
his heart is fully set in him, and his will stands in 



MISCELLANIES, 



247 



a full bent of resolution, will certainly if be have 
power in his hand, and opportunity to execute his 
conceived mischief, give it vent, and perpetrate 
the wicked devices of his heart ; for having once 
conceived mischief, and travailing in pain with it, 
he must, according to the course of nature, bring 
it forth, as it is in (Psalm vii. 14.) But if any of 
these inanimate, brutal, or rational agents, when 
there is no natural obstacle, have their power sus- 
pended ; and that when the affect is near the 
birth, and the design at the very article of execu- 
tion, so that though they would, yet they cannot 
hurt ; to what, think you, is this to be assigned 
and referred ? Yet so it hath been often seen, 
where God's interest hath been immediately con- 
cerned in the danger and evil of the event. The 
sea divided itself in its own channel, and made a 
wall of water on each side, to give God's distressed 
Israel a safe passage, and that not in a calm, but 
" when the waves thereof roared," as it is in (Isa. 
li. 15.) The fire when blown up to the most 
intense and vehement flame, had no power to 
singe one hair of God's faithful witnesses, when at 
the same instant it had power to destroy their 

y 4 



248 



MISCELLANIES. 



intended executioners at a greater distance, (Dan. 
iii. 22.) Yea, we find it hath been sometimes 
sufficient to consume, but not to torment the 
body, as in that known instance of blessed Byne- 
ham, who told his enemies that flames were to 
him as a bed of roses. The hungry lions put off 
their natural fierceness, and became gentle and 
harmless, when Daniel was cast among them for a 
prey. The like account, the church history gives 
us of Polycarp and Dionysius Areopagita, whom 
the fire would not touch, but stood after the man- 
ner of a ship's sail, filled with the wind about them. 

Ibid. 

It will be very effectual to the same purpose, 
that we frequently raise our minds towards heaven, 
and represent to our thoughts * the joys that are 
at God's right hand, those pleasures that endure 
for evermore ; for every man that hath this hope 
in him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure/ 
(1 John iii. 3.) If our heavenly country be much 
in our thoughts, it will make us, as ' strangers and 
pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war 
against the soul, and keep ourselves unspotted 
from this world/ that we may be fit for the enjoy- 



MISCELLANIES. 



24D 



ments and felicities of the other. But then we 
must see that our notions of heaven be not gross 
and carnal, that we dream not of a Mahometan 
Paradise, nor rest on those metaphors and simili- 
tudes by which those joys are sometimes repre- 
sented, for this might perhaps have a quite 
contrary effect ; it might entangle us farther in 
carnal affections, and we should be ready to 
indulge ourselves in a very liberal foretaste of 
those pleasures, wherein we had placed our ever- 
lasting felicity. But when we come once to 
conceive aright of those pure and spiritual plea- 
sures, when the happiness we propose to ourselves 
is from the sight, and love and enjoyment of God, 
and our minds are filled with the hopes and fore- 
thoughts of that blessed estate : O how mean and 
contemptible will all things here below appear in 
our eyes ! with what disdain shall we reject the 
gross and muddy pleasures that would deprive us 
of those celestial enjoyments, or any way unfit and 
indispose us for them. Scougal. 

If by your afflictions you are made more con- 
formable to Christ in his virtues, then certainly 
your afflictions are in love. Many are conform- 



250 



MISCELLANIES. 



able to Christ in their sufferings, that are not 
made conformable to Christ in his virtues by their 
sufferings. Many are in poverty, neglect, shame, 
contempt, reproach, &c. like to Christ, who yet 
by these are not made more like to Christ in his 
meekness, humbleness, heavenliness, holiness, 
righteousness, faithfulness, fraitfulness, goodness* 
contentedness, patience, submission, and subjec- 
tion. Oh, but if in these things you are made 
more like to Christ, without all peradventure your 
afflictions are in love. If by afflictions the soul be 
led to show forth the virtues of Christ, as in 
(1 Pet. ii. 9,) then certainly those afflictions are 
in love ; for they never have such an operation, 
but where they are set on by the hand of love. 
When God strikes as an enemy, all those strokes 
do but make a man more an enemy to God, as 
you see in Pharaoh, and others; but when the 
strokes of God are the strokes of love, they do 
but bring the soul nearer to Christ, and transform 
the soul more and more into the likeness of Christ. 
If by thy afflictions thou art made more holy, 
humble, heavenly, &c. they are in love. Brooks. 
To establish the truth of a religion, it is neces- 



MISCELLANIES. 



251 



sary that it should communicate the knowledge of 
human nature. For our true nature and true hap- 
piness, true virtue and true religion, are things, 
the knowledge of which is inseparable. It should 
also set forth both the greatness and the misery of 
man, together with the reasons of both. What 
religion, the Christian only excepted, has pos- 
sessed all these characteristics ? Pascal. 

The wicked man is a very coward, and is afraid 
of every thing : of God, because he is his enemy : 
of satan, because he is his torraenter : of God's 
creatures, because they (joining with their Maker) 
fight against him ; of himself, because he bears 
about him his own accuser and executioner. The 
godly man, contrarily, is afraid of nothing. Not 
of God, because he knows him his best friend, and 
therefore will not hurt him ; not of satan, because 
he cannot hurt him ; not of afflictions, because he 
knows they proceed from a loving God, and end 
to his own good ; not of the creatures, since the 
very stones of the field are in league with him ; 
not of himself, since his conscience is at peace. A 
wicked man may be secure, because he knows not 
what he hath to fear, or desperate through ex- 

z 



252 



MISCELLANIES. 



treraity of fear, but truly courageous he cannot be. 
Faithlessness cannot choose but be false-hearted. 
I will ever, by my courage, take trial of my faith ; 
by how much more I fear, by so much I believe. 

J. Hall. 

Love of God and our Brother. — It is very true, 
that I may first and more sensibly have the 
perception perhaps of my love to this or that 
particular man. But I must run the matter higher, 
and particularly inquire, what is the reason I love 
this man ? Is it because he is a good man ? 
taking goodness in the strictest and most noble 
sense. Is it because he hath participated of the 
Divine goodness ? and is a follower, imitator, re- 
presenter of God's moral goodness, which is his 
holiness ? We must be capable of concluding 
ourselves lovers of our brethren, as they are holy 
ones, as they bear, or appear to us to bear, the 
image of God. And hereby, and not otherwise, 
can we conclude our love to our brother to be of 
the right kind, by our being able to evince that 
we love God primarily and above him, that is, that 
w T e love him for God's sake. And whatever is to 
be said of any thing for such a reason, and only 



MISCELLANIES. 



253 



upon that account, is much more to be said of 
that reason itself. We do not therefore love our 
brother aright, if God be not loved much more : 
our love to God being the very reason why we 
trulv and aright do love our brother. 

Thus they stand connected in their object. You 
see they cannot be severed ; and that a man can- 
not possibly love his brother aright, if he love not 
God : therefore the love of God must needs draw 
in the love of our brother, as a thing inseparably 
connected with it. 

They are connected also in the root and princi- 
ple, which in both is one and the same ; namely, 
that very spirit of love, which is mentioned by 
Paul to Timothy, and which God has given us, as 
well as that of power, and of a sound mind, 
(2 Tim. i. 7.) We must know that love to our 
brother is a fruit of the Spirit as well as love to 
God. We have an enumeration of the several 
fruits of the Spirit, in the epistle to the Galatians, 
and love is set in the front of them all, (Gal. v. 
22.) Now if you consider what fruits of the flesh 
those of the Spirit do stand in opposition to, you 
will find yourselves necessitated to admit and con- 



254 



MISCELLANIES. 



elude, that love there, is not meant of love to God 
alone, but of that love which diffuses and spreads 
itself duly according as the objects are presented 
or do invite ; in which the Divine goodness is 
found, in himself primarily, and derived to this or 
that creature, and especially to such as bear, as 
was said, the more lively image and representation 
of his goodness. 

"We are not therefore to think, that love to God 
is one gracious principle, and love to our brother 
is another gracious principle ; but we must know, 
that it is one and the same gracious principle of 
holy love which works towards this or that ob- 
ject, according to the excellency and amiableness 
thereof ; that is, proportionably to what I see of 
Divine goodness in it, which is the formal reason 
of my love. Holy love is the affection of love 
sanctified ; which affection is not many but one, 
but yet turns itself towards this or that object 
according as the object claims and requires. 

Love to God and our brother concentre and 
agree in one end ; that is, the glory of God, and 
our own felicity : which two, you know, do make 
up the end of man. We ought to love God, in 



MISCELLANIES, 



255 



order to our glorifying him ; and we ought also to 
love our brother, for the same reason. So we 
ought to love God in order to our enjoying him, 
and being happy and blessed in him ; and in like 
manner ought we to love our brother, in order to 
our enjoying God, and being happy and blessed in 
him. 

The glory of God first depends upon our loving 
him, but it also as truly depends upon our loving 
our brother. Yea this glory of God which is the 
end, and some way ought to be the effect, of our 
actions, shines a great deal more, sometimes, in 
the exercise of love to men. Thus saith David, 
" My goodness extendeth not unto thee, but unto 
the saints that are upon the earth, in whom is all 
my delight," (Psalm xvi. 2, 3.) And if he had 
said, Thou art never the better for it, but they 
may be. Here it is that we make the glory of 
God to shine forth in our course and practice, 
when we do visibly exemplify the goodness of his 
nature in our own goodness, that is, in doing good ; 
in those continual fruits and acts of goodness, 
which issue and flow from the principle of divine 
love (with which our souls are possessed) to those 



256 



MISCELLANIES. 



that are related unto God, according as their 
relation to him is larger or more special, as we 
have formerly showed. Howe. 

Marks of true Religion. — True Religion ought 
to be distinguished, by requiring men to love 
God. This is what justice demands. And yet 
none but ours has ever enjoyed it. 

It ought likewise to make known the concu- 
piscence of man, and his inability to attain virtue 
by his own strength. It ought to apply the 
proper remedies to this defect ; of which prayer is 
the principal. Our religion has performed all 
this ; and none besides has ever begged of God 
the power of loving and of obeying him. 

Other religions, as those of the heathen, are 
more popular, for they consist only in externals ; 
but they suit not the judicious. A religion purely 
spiritual, would better suit refined persons, but 
would have no influence with the multitude. 
Christianity alone is proportioned to all capacities, 
being both internal and external. It raises the 
most ignorant to spirituality, and at the same 
time, humbles the most enlightened to the use of 
outward means ; being incomplete, where the 



MISCELLANIES. 



257 



two are not united. For the people must under- 
stand the spirit of the letter, and the learned must 
submit their spirit to the letter, in complying with 
exterior rites. 

We are hateful : Reason will convince us of 
this. Yet no religion but the Christian maintains 
this doctrine. "Wherefore no other religion can 
be received by those, who know themselves to be 
worthy only of hatred. 

No religion, except the Christian, acknowledges 
man to be the most excellent of creatures, and, at 
the same time, the most miserable. Some, aware 
of his excellence, have censured, as mean and un- 
grateful, the low opinion which men naturally 
entertain of their own condition. Others, well 
knowing the unhappy effects of his misery, have 
exposed, with haughty scorn, those notions of 
grandeur, which are no less natural to man. 

No religion but ours teaches us that man is 
born in sin. No sect of philosophers ever said 
this. Therefore no sect ever said the truth. 

God being hid, every religion which does not 
teach that God is hid, must be false ; and every 
religion which does not shew the reason why this 

z 4 



258 



MISCELLANIES. 



is so, must be useless. Our religion does both. 
That religion, which consists in believing the fall 
of man from a state of glory and communication 
with God, to a state of sorrow, humiliation, and 
estrangement from God, together with his resto- 
ration by a Messias, has always been in the world. 
All things have passed away ; and this remains, 
for which all things were. For God designing to 
form to himself a holy people, whom he should 
separate from all other nations, deliver from their 
enemies, and settle in a place of rest, was pleased 
expressly to promise that he would do this, and 
that he would come into the world for that pur- 
pose ; foretelling by his prophets, the very time 
and manner of his coming. Yet, meanwhile, to 
confirm the hope of his elect through all ages, he 
continually afforded them the types and figures of 
this deliverance ; and never left them without 
assurance, whether of his power or of his inclina- 
tion to save them. For, at the creation, Adam 
was the witness and depository of the promise 
concerning a Saviour, who was to be born of the 
woman. And though men in the first ages, could 
not forget their creation, their fall, and the divine 



MISCELLANIES. 



259 



promise of a Redeemer, yet, since the world in its 
very infancy, was overrun with all sorts of cor- 
ruptions, God was pleased to raise up holy men, 
as Enoch, Lamech, and others, who waited, with 
faith and patience, for Christ, promised from the 
beginning. After this, when the wickedness of 
men was at its height, God sent Noah, and saved 
him, when he drowned all the world : a miracle 
which testified at once the power of God to save 
the world, and his determination to perform this, 
by causing the promised Saviour to be born of a 
woman. This miracle sufficed to strengthen the 
expectation of mankind ; and the memory of it 
was still fresh, when God renewed his promises to 
Abraham, who dwelt in the midst of idolaters, and 
declared to him the mystery of the Messias that 
was to come. In the days of Isaac and Jacob, 
idolatry had overspread the earth ; yet these holy 
patriarchs lived in faith ; and Jacob, as he blest 
his children before his death, cried out with a 
transport which interrupted his discourse, / have 
waited for thy salvation, Lord. Pascal. 

On the Atonement. — The perfect righteousness 
of Christ, imputed to his people, was necessary, in 



260 



MISCELLANIES. 



order that God might justify them, with ample 
honour to his own law. And the infliction of the 
penalty annexed to disobedience on the offenders' 
substitute, was no less necessary to make manifest 
the evil of sin, the Divine indignation against it, 
and reconcile, in their exercise towards his people, 
his justice and mercy, his truth and holiness. 
" For it became him, for whom are all things, and 
by whom are all things, in bringing many sons 
unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation 
perfect through sufferings, " (Heb. ii. 10.) And 
because " the children are partakers of flesh and 
blood, he also himself likewise took part of the 
same ; that through death he might destroy him 
that had the power of death, that is, the devil," 
ver. 14. 

For these reasons, Christ, after paying perfect 
obedience to the law, died a death absolutely with- 
out parallel. All, besides himself, die because they 
are sinners. He, because sin was imputed to 
him, and punished both in his body and soul. By 
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of 
God, yet according to his own voluntary engage- 
ment, Jesus endured all that variety of miserv ? 



MISCELLANIES. 



261 



which sin deserves. He endured poverty, shame, 
and torturing pain of body and mind. He died 
under loud execrations, which were poured out 
upon him from a thousand tongues : He died 
under the curse of the law, transfixed by the 
sword of eternal justice to his cross. Prodigies 
then met together, which were never seen before, 
nor will be seen again : from different causes, 
heaven, earth, and hell seemed to conspire together 
to increase his torment, far above all comparison. 
For this we know from infallible authority, that 
the Father "spared not his own Son — that it plea- 
sed the Lord to bruise him — that he suffered, the 
just for the unjust, — bearing our sins in his own 
body on the tree," (Rom. viii. 32. Isa. liii. 10. 
1 Peter hi. 18. ii. 24. 

By virtue of his death, the full import of it 
being known and trusted in, the people of God 
are delivered from the menaces of the law in their 
consciences. They become dead to it by the body 
of Christ, being " married to another, even, to 
Him who is raised from the dead, that we should 
bring forth fruit unto God," Rom. vh. 4. 

By this means, their obedience to him becomes 



262 



MISCELLANIES. 



pure in its intention, and in its extent reaches to 
every commandment ; a service, not from sons of 
the bond- woman, but of the free ; not paid for 
wages to a master, but from affection to a beloved 
Father. Not as compelled by that awful threat, 
Do this and live, offend and perish ; (Gal. hi. 12.) 
but from a heart devoted to his service, and pene- 
trated with a sense of his high and holy authority. 

Venn. 

An address to Deists. — Suppose the mighty 
work accomplished, the cross trampled upon, 
Christianity every where proscribed, and the re- 
ligion of nature once more become the religion of 
Europe ; what advantage will you have derived 
for your country, or to yourselves, from the ex- 
change ? I know your answer — you will have 
freed the world from the hypocrisy of priests and 
the tyranny of superstition. — No ; you forget that 
Lycurgus, and Numa, and Odin, and Manco 
Capac, and all the great legislators of ancient and 
modern story, have been of opinion that the affairs 
of civil society could not be well conducted with- 
out some religion ; you must of necessity introduce 
a priesthood, with probably as much hypocrisy; 



MISCELLANIES. 



263 



a religion, with assuredly more superstition than 
that which you now reprobate with such indecent 
and ill grounded contempt. But I will tell you 
from what you will have freed the world : you will 
have freed it from its abhorrence of vice, and from 
every powerful incentive to virtue ; you will, with 
the religion, have brought back the depraved 
morality of Paganism ; you will have robbed man- 
kind of their firm assurance of another life ; and 
thereby you will have despoiled them of their 
patience, of their humility, of their charity, oC 
their chastity, of all those mild and silent virtues 
which, (however despicable they may appear in 
your eyes,) are the only ones which meliorate and 
sublime our nature ; which Paganism never knew, 
which spring from Christianity alone, which do or 
might constitute our comfort in this life, and with- 
out the possession of which, another life, if after 
all there should happen to be one, must, (unless a 
miracle be exerted in the alteration of our dispo- 
sition,) be more vicious and more miserable than 
this is. 

Perhaps you will contend that the universal 
light of reason, that the truth and fitness of things 

A A 



264 



MISCELLANIES. 



are of themselves sufficient to exalt the nature and 
regulate the manners of mankind. Shall we never 
have done with this groundless commendation of 
natural law ? Look into the first chapter of Paul's 
Epistle to the Romans, and you will see the extent 
of its influence over the Gentiles of those days; or, 
if you dislike Paul's authority and the manners of 
antiquity, look into the more admired accounts of 
modern voyagers, and examine its influence over 
the Pagans of our own times, over the sensual in- 
habitants of Otaheite, over the cannibals of New 
Zealand, or the remorseless savages of America.-^- 
But these men are barbarians. Your law of na- 
ture, notwithstanding, extends even to them. But 
they have misused their reason : they have then 
the more need of, and would be the more thank- 
ful for, that revelation which you, with an ignorant 
and fastidious self sufficiency, deem useless. — But 
these, however, you will think, are extraordinary 
instances ; and that we ought not from these to 
take our measure of the excellency of the law of 
nature, but rather from the civilized states of 
China or Japan, or from the nations which 
flourished in learning and in arts before Christi- 



MISCELLANIES 



265 



anity was heard of in the world. You mean to 
say, that by the law of nature, which you are 
desirous of substituting in the room of the Gospel, 
you do not understand those rules of conduct 
which an individual, abstracted from the commu- 
nity, and deprived of the institutions of mankind, 
could excogitate for himself ; but such a system of 
precepts as the most enlightened men of the most 
enlightened ages have recommended to our obser- 
vance. Where do you find this system ? We 
cannot meet with it in the works of Stobseus, or 
the Scythian Anacharsis, nor in those of Plato or 
of Cicero, nor in those of the Emperor Antoninus 
or the slave Epictetus, for we are persuaded that 
the most animated considerations of the prepon 
and the honestum, of the beauty of virtue and the 
fitness of things, are not able to furnish even a 
Brutus himself with permanent principles of 
action ; much less are they able to purify the 
polluted recesses of a vitiated heart, to curb the 
irregularity of appetite, or restrain the impetuosity 
of passion in common men. If you order us to 
examine the works of Grotius, of PuffendoriF, or 
Burlamaqui, or Kutcheson, for what you under- 



266 



MISCELLANIES. 



stand by the law of nature, we apprehend that 
you are in a great error in taking your notions of 
natural law, as discoverable by natural reason, 
from the elegant systems of it which have been 
drawn up by Christian philosophers, since they 
have all laid their foundations, either tacitly or 
expressly, upon a principle derived from revelation 
—a thorough knowledge of the being and attri- 
butes of God ; and even those amongst ourselves, 
who, rejecting Christianity, still continue Theists, 
are indebted to revelation for those sublime specu- 
lations concerning the Deity which you have 
fondly attributed to the excellency of your own 
unassisted reason. Watson. 

Consolation to be derived from Christianity. — No, 
my beloved brethren ! this world cannot, it was 
never designed by Providence that this world 
should afford any source or promise of happiness 
equal to what the prospect of immortality, and the 
hopes of the Christian stretching into eternity, 
hold out to us even in this world. In this pros- 
pect alone, we are to look for those powerful re- 
straints that are equal to control the unruly wills 
of men, and to bridle the tumultuous and dis- 



MISCELLANIES. 



267 



orderly passions that destroy the public peace, and 
imbitter all the enjoyments of the private domestic 
circle. In these hopes alone we are to look for 
those correctives which, by chastening our plea- 
sures and enjoyments, and restraining them within 
the bounds of virtue, innocence, and right, keep 
every thing in its own place, preserve order, and 
harmony, and concord in the society to which we 
hold, and secure the peace of the individual with 
others and with himself : — with others by his rec- 
titude and integrity of conduct ; by the spirit of 
universal benevolence he habitually breathes ; by 
his blameless, inoffensive deportment and man- 
ners ; and with himself, by his having no experi- 
ence of the fatal consequences of vicious habits, 
early and long indulged ; by feeling no stings of 
conscience to imbitter his days. 

Sorrow and pain and suffering are the earthly 
portion of man. He is born to them as the sparks 
fly upwards. There is nothing more regular or 
uniform in the course of nature than their pro- 
gress and operation in every stage of his life. 
Stretched on the bed of straw, and under the 
mean and forlorn roof with the poor and the in- 



268 



MISCELLANIES. 



digent, the whole train of human calamities will 
equally force their way through all the barriers 
that fence the habitations of the great and the 
affluent, even to the throne. Of this our unhappy 
age furnishes us with examples equal to what the 
world has ever known since sin first introduced 
confusion and disorder among the works of God. 
Where, but in the great truths which I have been 
unfolding to you ; where, but in the reflections 
they suggest ; — where, but in the views they open 
to us ; — can we look for any permanent support 
under this burden of universal, unavoidable misery, 
as it presses on the whole race of man ; or as it 
weighs down every individual, bearing the pro- 
portion that falls to his own lot ? 

It is true, that neither these truths, nor the 
reflections they suggest, nor the views they open 
to us, can exempt us from the condition of our 
nature. They will not secure us against sufferings 
and calamities ; we must all bear our cross. But 
they will strengthen us for the trial ; they will 
take from misery its bitterness ; they will strip 
affliction of its sting. They will tell the Christian 
that every period of his distress will issue in 



MISCELLANIES. 



269 



eternal happiness, and that what he sows in tears 
he will in due season reap hi joy. Does he pine in 
poverty ? Does he earn his scanty bread by the 
sweat of his brow ? They teach, and they assist 
him to bear with patient resignation, the condition 
of his mortal lot, in humble submission to the 
will of the Sovereign Disposer of all things, and 
in the certain expectation of the happiness which 
he reserves for the poor in spirit in that kingdom, 
where rich and poor shall meet together before him, 
and he will show himself to be their common 
Father. 

Has he suffered any of those signal reverses of 
fortune, common to all men in all times 5 but more 
particularly to be expected in this age of strange 
revolutions, that suddenly reduce the most flou- 
rishing and opulent to the extreme of want and 
wretchedness ? From the truths we have been 
contemplating, he learns that he has only been 
stripped of transitory advantages, in which it was 
never designed that he should have any secure or 
permanent inheritance. Beyond this vale of tears 
they instruct him to look for other possessions, 

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MISCELLANIES. 



which no revolutions of this world can affect, no 
injustice seize, no violence wrest from him. 

Does he suffer in the afflictions of others? Does 
he weep by the bed of sickness, and witness the 
last agonies of a revered parent or a beloved 
child ? Or does he hang over the long loved 
partner of all his joys and all his sorrows, lan- 
guishing in pain, and waiting the stroke that is to 
tear up all his affections, and leave him, hence- 
forward, to draw the dregs of life in unblessed 
singleness and solitude ? Through the same paths 
of pain and suffering, these truths will teach him 
that he must himself soon follow to where those 
objects of his love are only gone before, and where 
he will sit down with them in the blessed society 
of the people of God ; there, where no painful 
sympathies will ever wound their affections ; no 
anguish of separation ever interrupt their mutual 
enjoyment ; there, where death shall be no more, 
nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain, for the former 
things shall be done away. 

And when the trial is brought home to himself, 
when the hour is come in which his mortal frame 



MISCELLANIES. 



271 



sinks under the pressure of age, of disease, and 
nature exhausted warns him that his dissolution is 
near ; even that hour, so appalling in its ap- 
proaches to the unbelieving and to the man of 
guilt, comes to him stripped of its chief terrors. 
Through the valley of the shadow of death, to which 
it leads him, a ray of light beams from the Gospel 
as the dawning of the eternal day ; and over that 
land of darkness as of darkness itself, and without 
order, all is bright, and serene, and calm, and the 
promise of endless rest, and peace, and bliss be- 
yond. As the outer man decayeth, he is strength- 
ened in the inner man. As every earthly object 
fades gradually from his sight, faith brings in 
nearer view to his hopes that heavenly seat, where, 
seeing even as he is seen, there will be no more ex- 
ercise for his faith, and where his hopes will be 
superseded by enjoyment. His ears are closing to 
every voice, in which, through each endearing in- 
terchange of affection, his youth and his age took 
delight ; but still he hears the voice of him who 
poured out his soul unto death, that he through him 
might live, assuring him of that glorious termina- 
tion to all his sufferings, to which he himself led 



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MISCELLANIES. 



the way : "I am the resurrection and the life ; he 
that believeth in me, though he die, yet shall he 
live." The trust he had ever reposed in this his 
Saviour and his God strengthens, as he feels the 
moment approaching when he is to stand before 
him ; and the words of the holy Job, anticipating 
that blissful moment, are the last that tremble on 
his livid and convulsive lips — " I know that my 
Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the 
latter day upon the earth ; and though after my 
skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall 
I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine 
eyes shall behold, and not another." Change this 
for the language of infidelity, you have brutified 
your soul into a persuasion that the dying words 
of man are but the last sounds of a piece of me- 
chanism falling to pieces; but leave us to "die 
the death of the righteous," and to have our latter 
end like unto theirs. O'Beirne. 

The too eager pursuit of worldly things. — There 
is a third portion of seed that falls among thorns. 
This wants neither root nor depth of earth. It 
grows up ; but the misfortune is, that the thorns 
grow 7 up with it. The fault of the soil is not of 



MISCELLANIES. 



273 



bearing nothing, but of bearing too much ; of 
bearing what it ought not, of exhausting its 
strength and nutrition on vile and worthless pro- 
ductions, which choke the good seed, and prevent 
it from coming to perfection. " These are they," 
says our Saviour in the parallel place of St. Luke, 
" which, when they have heard, go forth, and are 
choked with nares, and riches, and pleasures of 
this life, and bring no fruit to perfection/' In 
their youth, perhaps they receive religious instruc- 
tion, they imbibe right principles, and listen to 
good advice : but no sooner do they go forth, no 
sooner do they leave those persons and those 
. places from whom they receiveth them, than they 
take the road either of business or of pleasure, 
pursue their interests, their amusements or their 
guilty indulgences with unbounded eagerness, and 
have neither time nor inclination to cultivate the 
seeds of religion that have been sown in their 
hearts, and to eradicate the weeds that have been 
mingled with them. The consequence is, that the 
weeds prevail, and the seeds are choked and lost. 

Can there possibly be a more faithful picture of 
a large proportion of the Christian world ? Let 



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MISCELLANIES. 



us look around us, and observe how the greater 
part of those we meet with are employed. In 
what is it that their thoughts are busied, their 
views, their hopes, and their fears centred, their 
attention occupied, their hearts, and souls, and 
affections engaged ; is it in searching the Scrip- 
tures, in meditating on its doctrines, its precepts, 
its exhortations, its promises, and its threats ? Is 
it in communing with their own hearts, in probing 
them to the very bottom, in looking carefully 
whether there be any way of wickedness in them, 
in plucking out every noxious weed, and leaving 
room for the good seed to grow and swell and ex- 
pand itself, and bring forth fruit to perfection ? Is 
it in cultivating purity of manners, a spirit of 
charity, towards the whole human race, and the 
most exalted sentiments of piety, gratitude, and 
love, towards their Maker and Redeemer ? These, 
I fear, are far from being the general and princi- 
pal occupations of mankind. Too many of them 
are, God knows, very differently employed. They 
are overwhelmed with business, they are devoted 
to amusement, they are immersed in sensuality, 
they are mad with ambition, they are idolaters of 



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275 



wealth., of power, of glory, of fame. On these 
things all their affections are fixed. These are the 
great objects of their pursuit ; and if any accidental 
thought of religion happens to cross their way. 
they instantly dismiss the unbidden, unwelcome 
guest, with the answer of Felix to Pad — " Go thy 
way for this time ; when we have a convenient 
season we will send for thee." 

But how then, it is said, are we to conduct 
ourselves : If Providence has blessed us with 
riches, with honor, with power, with reputation, 
are we to reject these gifts of our heavenly Father ; 
or ought we not rather to accept them with thank- 
fulness, and enjoy with gratitude the advantages 
and the comforts which his bounty has bestowed 
upon us ? Most assuredly we ought. But then 
they aie to be enjoyed also with innocence, with 
temperance, and with moderation. They must no: 
be allowed to usurp the first place in our hearts ; 
they must not be permitted to supplant God in our 
affection, or to dispute that pre-eminence and pri- 
ority which he claims over every propensity of our 
nature, This and this only can prevent the good 

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MISCELLANIES. 



seed from being choked with the cares, the riches, 
and the pleasures of the present life. Porteus. 

The Power and Devices of Satan. — A second 
enemy, into whose hands we are fallen, is Satan ; 
for, though many affect to treat the agency, and 
even existence of the execrable spirit with derision, 
yet the Scripture, from the beginning to the close 
of man's eventful history, speaks much and awfully 
of both. Not to admit these passages as full 
proof, is to make the Bible itself contemptible for 
the violent absurdity of its phrases. 

Leaving, therefore, these modern Sadducees to 
sport themselves with their own deceivings if they 
will, let us attend to the oracles of God, and un- 
derstand from them what have been, and still are 
wiles and malicious activity practised against man, 
by that old serpent, the devil. If we inquire of 
the word of God, who seduced our first parents, 
robbing them of their original righteousness and 
paradise ? Who afterwards induced their poster- 
ity to prostitute themselves to idols, over the face 
of the whole earth ; to shed in sacrifice before 
them, rivers of human blood ? Who dared re- 



MISCELLANIES, 



277 



peatedly to attack in person our incarnate God, 
instigated Judas to betray, and the Jews to crucify 
him, and after his ascension, to persecute unto 
death his members ? To each of these questions 
the oracles of God reply — Satan did it all : who 
for thus practising upon the children of men, to 
their eternal ruin, is branned with the names of 
tempter, deceiver, liar accuser, and murderer ; 
and charged with " walking about, like a roaring 
lion, seeking whom he may devour," (1 Pet. v. 8.) 
Though these detestable names and qualities belong 
to him, he is nevertheless the prince and god of 
this world, working in the children of disobedience, 
(Eph. ii. 2.) to do the lusts of him their father ; 
who for this reason are called i{ children of the 
wicked one," (Matt. xiii. 38.) and doomed to 
suffer for their sins in that world of woe, prepared 
for the devil and his angels. Matt. xxv. 41. 

Thus full is the account in holy writ, not onlv 
of his existence, but his empire over us, his 
activity, and too successful malice in completing 
the misery of man. 

As an accuser and adversary, he impeaches the 
people of God of high crimes against the law, 



278 



MISCELLANIES. 



urging from thence the necessity of their condem- 
nation, as rebels with himself. To invalidate 
this claim, Christ expired, ' ' blotting out the hand- 
writing of ordinances that was against us, which 
was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, 
nailing it to his cross ; and having spoiled princi- 
palities and powers/' of their grand plea against 
liis people, " he made a show of them openly, (as 
thus defeated in their malicious accusation,) tri- 
umphing over them in it." Col. ii. 14, 15. 

The prophet's vision beautifully exemplifies this 
interesting truth — " He showed me," saith Zecha- 
riah, " Joshua the high priest standing before the 
Angel of the Lord, (that is, Christ,) and Satan 
standing (as the accuser in jewish courts of judi- 
cature was wont to do) at his right hand to resist 
him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord 
rebuke thee, O Satan ; even the Lord that hath 
chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee : is not this a brand 
plucked out of the fire ? Now Joshua was clothed 
with filthy garments, and stood before the Angel," 
as a person accused and charged with sin. " And 
he (the Lord) answered and spake unto those who 
stood before him„ saying, Take away the filthy 



MISCELLANIES. 



279 



garments from him. And unto him he said, Be- 
hold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from 
thee, and I will clothe thee with change of rai- 
ment." Zech. hi. 1 — 4. 

What is represented so forcibly in this vision, 
as the way of delivering Joshua, the high priest, 
from Satan's malicious arraignment, is expressly 
declared to be the way, in which all the ransomed 
of the Lord are saved. Their adversary, the 
accuser of the brethren, follows them, as it were, 
into the court of judgment, where, to his ever- 
lasting confusion, he hears this challenge pro- 
claimed in their behalf; "Who shall lay any 
thing to the charge of God's elect ?" to prosecute 
them at his bar, as guilty ? " It is God that jus- 
tifieth. Who is he that condemneth ? It is 
Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, 
who is even at the right hand of God, who also 
maketh intercession for us. ,, Rom. viii. 33, 34. 

Venn. 

It is by no means incredible, that God should 
unite himself to us. — That which renders men so 
unwilling to believe themselves capable of union 
with God, is but the sense of their own degrada- 



280 



MISCELLANIES. 



lion. Yet, if they be sincere, let them foftow it 
out as I have done, and they will confess that our 
degradation has the effect of preventing our 
discovering, by our own strength, whether his 
mercy cannot render us capable of this union. 
For I would gladly be informed, whence this 
creature, who acknowledges himself so weak, 
obtains the right to measure and limit the divine 
mercy, as his own fancy suggests. Man under- 
stands so little, the nature of God, that he under- 
stands not himself ; and yet, troubled by the 
contemplation of his own condition, he boldly 
pronounces, that it is beyond the power of God to 
qualify him for this connection. But I will ask 
him what God requires at his hands, but that he 
should know and love him ; and since he finds 
himself naturally capable of knowing, and of loving, 
upon what ground he suspects that God cannot 
exhibit himself as the object of his knowledge and 
love ? For he knows, at any rate, that he exists, 
and that he loves something. If then he can dis- 
cern any thing in his present darkness, and if, 
amongst the things of this world, he can find 
somewhat which may engage his affection, why, 



MISCELLANIES. 



281 



if God be pleased to impart to him some ray of 
his essence, should he not know and love God, 
according to the measure in which this gift is 
vouchsafed ? There must, therefore no doubt, be 
an insufferable presumption in such reasonings, 
though veiled under an appearance of humility. 
For our humility can neither be rational nor sin- 
cere, unless it makes us confess, that not knowing 
of ourselves what we are, we can attain this 
knowledge only by the teaching of God, Pascal. 

The poiver of Conscience to punish vice. — It 
would be in vain to dissemble, that, in the present 
state, as is the offence such is not always the 
punishment, Notoriously profligate sinners often 
partake not, to appearance, the common evils of 
life, but pass their days in prosperity, affluence, 
and health, and die without any visible tokens of 
the divine displeasure. The fact is indisputable ; 
and it was a stumbling-block by very good men of 
old time, not without great difficulty surmounted. 
The conflict occasioned by it in the human mind is 
described at large in the seventy- third Psalm, and 
in the twelfth chapter of the prophet Jeremiah ; 
nor will believers fail sometimes to experience a 

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282 



MISCELLANIES. 



temptation of a similar nature, while the object 
shall continue to present itself, that is, while the 
world shall last. 

To take off, in some measure, the force of the 
objection, it must be remarked, that, besides those 
judgments of God, which lie open to the observa- 
tion of mankind, there are others, even in the 
present life, of a secret and invisible kind, known 
only to the party by whom they are felt. There 
is a court constantly sitting within, from whose 
jurisdiction the criminal can plead no exemption, 
and from whose presence he cannot fly ; there is 
evidence produced against him, which he can 
neither disprove nor evade ; and there, a just sen- 
tence is not only passed, but forthwith executed 
on him, by the infliction of torments, severe and 
poignant as the strokes of whips or scorpions ; 
torments, exquisite in proportion to the sensibility 
of the part affected ; torments, of which he sees 
the beginning, but is never likely to see the end. 

Trust not to appearances. Men are not what 
they seem. In the brilliant scenes of splendour 
and magnificence, of luxury and dissipation, sur- 
rounded by the companions of his pleasure, and 



MISCELLANIES. 



283 



the flatterers of his vices, amidst the flashes of 
wit and merriment, when all wears the face of 
gaiety and festivity, the profligate often reads his 
doom, written by the hand whose characters are 
indelible. Should he turn away his eyes from be- 
holding it, and succeed in the great work during 
the course of his revels ; yet the time will come 
when from scenes like these he must retire, and 
be alone : and then, as Dr. South states the ques- 
tion in a manner not to be answered, " What is all 
that a man can enjoy in this way for a week, a 
month, or a year, compared with what he feels for 
one hour, when his conscience shall take him aside 
and rate him by himself ?" 

There is likewise another hour which will come, 
and that soon — the hour when life must end ; 
when the accumulated wealth of the east and the 
west, with all the assistance it is able to procure, 
will not be competent to obtain the respite of a 
moment ; when the impenitent sinner shall be 
called — and must obey the call — to leave every 
thing, and give up his accounts to his Maker, of 
the manner in which he has spent his time, and 
employed his talents. Of what is said by such at 



284 



MISCELLANIES. 



that hour, we know not much. Care is generally 
taken that we never should. Of what is thought 
we know nothing. O merciful God, grant that 
we never may ! Horne. 

The submission and exercise of Reason, — The 
highest exercise of reason consists in discovering, 
that there are things innumerable beyond its com- 
pass. It is very weak, if it make not this discov- 
ery. It is fit we should know, when to doubt, 
when to rest assured, when to submit. He who 
knows not this, is unacquainted with the powers 
of reason. Yet are there many who offend 
against these three rules ; either by viewing all 
things as demonstrable, from an ignorance of the 
nature of demonstrative evidence ; or by doubting 
of every thing, because they know not where they 
ought to submit ; or by submitting to every thing 
for want of discrimination. 

If we lower all things to the standard of reason, 
our religion will retain nothing either mysterious 
or supernatural. If we outrage the principles of 
reason, our religion will be absurd and ridiculous. 

Reason, says St. Austin, would never submit, 
unless convinced that on some occasions, submis- 



MISCELLANIES. 



285 



sion was its duty. It is but just therefore, that it 
should submit, where it sees that it ought to sub- 
mit ; and that it should decline doing so, where no 
sufficient inducement can be alleged ; taking care, 
at the same time, not to be deceived. 

Superstition and true piety differ widely. To 
carry piety to the extent of superstition, is to 
destroy it. Heretics reproach us with this pros- 
tration of our faculties. And we deserve the 
charge, if we exact submission in things which do 
not properly call for it. 

Nothing is so consistent with reason, as the 
disclaiming of reason in matters of faith ; and 
nothing so repugnant to reason, as the disclaiming 
of reason in things which belong not to the pro- 
vince of faith. The two extremes are equally 
dangerous, wholly to exclude reason, and to admit 
nothing but reason. 

Faith says many things on which the senses are 
silent ; but nothing which the senses deny. It is 
above them, but never contradicts them. 

Pascal. 

Faith without Reasoning. — Might we but see a 
miracle, say some, how gladly would we become 



286 



MISCELLANIES. 



converts ! They would not speak thus, did they 
understand what conversion means. They ima- 
gine, that this work consists in the bare acknow- 
ledgment of God, and that his worship is mere lip 
service, little different from that which the heathen 
offered to their idols. True conversion is to 
annihilate ourselves, before this Sovereign Being, 
whom we have so often provoked, and who, at 
any time, may justly destroy us : it is to acknow- 
ledge, that we can do nothing without him, and 
that we merit nothing from him, but his wrath ; it 
is to know that there is a natural opposition 
between God and ourselves ; and that without a 
Mediator, there could be no intercourse between 
us. 

Think it not strange, that the simple should 
believe without reasoning. God inspires them 
with the love of his justice, and with hatred of 
themselves. He inclines their hearts to believe. 
No man ever believes with a true and saving faith 
unless God inclines his heart ; and when God so 
inclines the heart, we shall believe. Of this, 
David was sensible when he prayed, " Incline my 
heart unto thy testimonies. " 



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287 



That some men believe without having- examined 
the proofs of religion, is because they are of a holy 
frame of mind, and because what they here affirmed 
by our religion is agreeable to such a temper. 

They are sensible, that God made them. They 
desire to love him alone, to hate none but them- 
selves. They are sensible that they cannot do this 
of their own powers : that they cannot come to 
God ; and that unless he come to them, they can 
have no communication with him. And they 
hear our religion declare, that we ought to love 
God alone, and to hate none but ourselves ; but as 
we all are corrupt and alienated from God, God 
has become man, that he might unite himself to 
us. There needs no more to persuade men, who 
have this disposition of heart, together with this 
apprehension of their duty, and of their inability. 

Those who are Christians, without the know- 
ledge of prophecies, or evidence, do yet form as 
good a judgment of their religion as those who 
possess this knowledge. They judge of it by the 
heart, as others judge by the understanding. It is 
God himself who inclines them to believe : and 
hence their faith is of the most effectual kind. 

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288 



MISCELLANIES. 



I admit that one of those Christians, who 
believes without evidence, is not qualified, perhaps, 
to convince an infidel who asks for evidence. But 
those who are better informed, can with ease 
demonstrate, that such a believer does truly 
receive his faith from the inspiration of God, 
though he be unable himself to prove this. 

Ibid. 

Love of God and our Brother. — The viewing 
God also in the ways of his providence, how hath 
it excited the love of holy men sometimes ! When 
Moses and the children of Israel had seen that 
marvellous work of the sea divided, themselves 
conducted and brought safe through it, the waters 
made a wall on the right hand and on the left, and 
their enemies dead on the sea- shore, how did this 
set love on work in them ! how is the blessed God 
adored and admired upon the account of what 
their eyes had seen of him ! " Who, say they, is a 
God like unto thee ? Who is like to thee among 
the gods, glorious in holiness fearful in praises, 
doing wonders ?" (Exod. xv. 11.) And after the 
people of God had seen that great salvation 
wrought, that we find recorded in the fourth 



MISCELLANIES. 



289 



chapter of Judges, what a mighty raisedness of 
heart do we find in the next chapter, all shut up 
in this. " So let all thine enemies perish, O 
Lord, but let them that love him be as the sun 
when he goeth forth in his might," (Judg. v. 31.) 
Here was love set on work and raised to the 
height, so as even to pour out blessings upon all 
the lovers of God. What a phrase of benediction 
is that, " Let all that love him, be as the sun 
when he goeth forth in his might !" which pro- 
ceeded from the view of his excellent greatness. 

Howe, 

On Pride.— Wealth, rank, and genius are rich 
gifts, often ungratefully perverted into stimulants 
to pride. What, however, can be less secure ? 
Riches make themselves wings, and flee away — 
the crowns of princes are torn from their brows — 
reason often totters on her throne — and the 
majesty of intellect lies prostrate in the dust. But 
supposing them to be less fluctuating and evanes- 
cent, and that they serve to throw a certain degree 
of splendour round a child of dust ; his depend- 
ance and feebleness must still be felt and betrayed, 
Is he not a being of yesterday ? whose " breath is 



290 



MISCELL ANIES. 



in his nostrils"- — whose days on earth are but a 
shadow — the sport of accident, the victim of dis- 
ease, the prey of death. And is not pride in such 
a being, with faculties thus limited, with powers 
thus feeble, most absurd and preposterous ? 

Contemplating man then, simply as a rational, 
not as an immortal creature, we must conclude 
this vice to be highly offensive to Almighty God, 
who formed him from the dust, and to whom he 
owes " life, and breath, and all things for every 
proud man robs God of the homage due to him 
alone — " erects new altars to strange deities — and 
by the wildest of all idolatry, burns incense to 
himself." 

In our intercourse with the world, pride is pro- 
ductive of a thousand miseries and inconveniences. 
It places us in an attitude of hostility with our 
fellow creatures, and yet renders us vulnerable at 
every pore. It gives us an exquisite sense of our 
own claims, and deadens our perception of the 
claims of others. It is in close alliance with 
anger, hatred, envy, and revenge, with all those 
vices which may be termed antisocial. It is no 
less mischievous with respect to ourselves ; it 



MISCELLANIES , 



'29 i 



bribes the judgment — silences the checks of con- 
science — vitiates the motives to action — throws a 
false and delusive light over our virtues and vices, 
diminishing the one, and magnifying the other ; 
thus opposing a formidable barrier to improvement, 
by effectually concealing the necessity of repent- 
ance. Anonymous. 

On the knoivledge of Salvation,— li we are taught 
to conclude, from the goodness of God, and his 
paternal love to the church of Christ, that he will 
give them to know that they shall certainly be 
saved, the truth of this conclusion is much more 
confirmed, when the knowledge of salvation is 
proved to be the best preservative from disobe- 
dience, and the strongest incitement to lead a holy 
life. Yet, in the very nature of things, every 
superabundant manifestation of undeserved love, 
when understood, must have this effect. For 
though we may abuse and insult mercy exercised 
towards us, it is only whilst we know not oar own 
deserts. Those who think they have received but 
little, will love little, whatever favours are bestowed 
upon them. Those who, contrary to their ac- 
knowledged demerit, have received much, will 

c c 4 



292 



MISCELLANIES. 



love much ; as Christ has decided the matter. 
For this is the love of God, that we keep his com- 
mandments, (1 John iv. 3.) Almost incredible 
are the efforts which have been made to serve a 
beloved person, where sense of excellency in the 
object has concurred with gratitude for favours 
received. Such instances are the embellishment 
of history, the wonder and delight of all mankind. 

Venn. 

On the Fleeiness of Life, — Not only our con- 
nexions with all things around us change, but our 
own life, through all its stages and conditions, is 
ever passing away. How just and how affecting 
is that image, employed in the sacred writings to 
describe the state of man, ' We spend our years as 
a tale that is told!' (Psalm xc. 9.) It is not to 
any thing great or lasting that human life is com- 
pared ; not to a monument that is built, or to an 
inscription that is engraved ; not even to a book 
that is written, or to a history that is recorded, 
but to a tale, which is listened to for a little ; 
where the words are fugitive and passing, and 
where one incident succeeds and hangs on another, 
till by insensible transitions we are brought to the 



MISCELLANIES 



293 



close ; a tale, which in some passages may be 
amusing, in others tedious ; but whether it amuses 
or fatigues, is soon told and soon forgotten. Thus 
year steals upon us year after year, Life is never 
standing still for a moment ; but continually 
though insensibly sliding into a new form. In- 
fancy rises up fast to childhood ; childhood to 
youth ; youth passes quickly into manhood ; and 
the gray hair and the faded look are not long of 
admonishing us that old age is at hand. In this 
course all generations run. The world is made of 
unceasing rounds of transitory existence. Some 
generations are coming forward into being, and 
others hastening to leave it. The stream which 
carries us along, is ever flowing with a quick cur- 
rent, though with a still and noiseless course. The 
dwelling-place of man is continually emptying, and 
by a fresh succession of inhabitants, continually 
filling anew. ' The memory of man passeth 
away like the remembrance of a guest who hath 
tarried but one night.' 

As the life of man considered in its duration , 
thus fleets and passes away, so, 4 during the time it 
lasts, its condition is perpetually changing. It 



294 



MISCELLANIES. 



affords us nothing on which we can set up our 
rest ; no enjoyment or possession which we can 
properly call our own. When we have begun to 
be placed in such circumstances as we desired, and 
wish our lives to proceed in the same agreeable 
tenour, how often comes some unexpected event 
across to disconcert all our schemes of happiness ? 
Our health declines ; our friends die ; our families 
are scattered ; something or other is not long of 
occurring to show us that the wheel must turn 
round ; the fashion of the world must pass away. 
Is there any man who dares to look to futurity 
with an eye of confident hope ; and to say that, 
against a year hence, he can promise being in the 
same condition of health or fortune as he is at 
present ? The seeds of change are every where 
sown in our state ; and the very causes that 
seemed to promise us security are often secretly 
undermining it. Great fame provokes the attacks 
of envy and reproach. High health gives occasion 
to intemperance and disease. The elevation of the 
mighty never fails to render their condition totter- 
ing ; and that oblcurity which shelters the mean 
exposes them, at the same time, to become the 



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295 



prey of oppression. So completely is the fashion 
of this world made by Providence for change, and 
prepared for passing away= In the midst of this 
instability, it were some comfort, did human pros- 
perity decay as slowly it rises. By slow degrees, 
and by many intervening steps it rises. But one 
day is sufficient to scatter and bring it to nought. 

Blair, 

There is a foolish pre-apprehension of possible 
evils, which, whether they come or not, does no 
good, but makes evils to come perplexingly before- 
hand, and antedates their misery, and adds to the 
pain of many others that will never come. These 
are the fumes of a dark, distempered humour, vain 
fears, which vex and trouble some minds at pre- 
sent, and do not waste any thing of any grief to 
come after. But calmly and composedly to sit 
down and consider evil days coming, any kind of 
trials that probably, yea, or possibly, may arrive, 
so as to be ready to entertain them without 
astonishment ; this is a wise and useful exercise of 
the mind, and takes off much of the weight of such 
things, breaks them in falling' on us, that thev 
come not so sad down, when they light first upon 



296 MISCELLANIES. 

the apprehension. Thus, it is true, nothing comes 
unawares to a wise man, He hath supposed all, 
or as bad as any thing that can come, hath ac- 
quainted his mind with the horridest shapes, and 
therefore, when such things appear, will not so 
readily start at them. This I would advise to be 
done, not only in things we can more easily suffer, 
but in those we think would prove hardest and 
most indigestible to inure the heart to them ; not to 
be like some, who are so tender-fancied, that they 
dare not so much as think of some things, the 
death of a dear friend, or wife, or husband, or 
child. That is oftener to be viewed, rather than 
any other event. Bring thy mind to it as a start- 
ing horse to that, whereat it does most startle. 

Leighton. 

Thoughts on Religion. — As the two great sources 
of sin are pride and sloth, Cod has disclosed tw T o 
of his attributes for their cure, his mercy, and his 
justice. The effect of his justice is to abase our 
pride ; and the effect of his mercy, is to overcome 
our sloth, by exciting us to good works, as it is 
said, " The goodness of God leadeth to repent- 
ance." And, again, " Let them turn every one 



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from his evil wav : who can tell if God will turn 
and repent?" (Jonah iii. 8, 9.) Thus the divine 
mercy, so far from its being an encouragement to 
sloth, is the greatest spur to industry. And in- 
stead of saying, " If our God were not a merciful 
God it would be requisite to use our utmost 
endeavours towards fulfilling his commands," it is 
rational to say, " because he is a merciful God, 
therefore we ought to labour with all our strength 
to fulfil them." Pascal. 

The advantages of early piety, — Consider further, 
If we will deny God the hearty and vigorous ser- 
vice of our best days, how can we expect that he 
will accept the faint and flattering devotions of 
old age : wise men are wont to provide some stay 
and comfort for themselves against the infirmities 
of that time ; that they may have something to 
lean upon in their weakness, something to miti- 
gate the afflictions of that dark and gloomy even- 
ing ; that what they cannot enjoy of present 
pleasure, may in some measure be made up to 
them in comfortable reflections upon the past 
actions of a holy and well- spent life. 

But on the other hand, if we have neglected 



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MISCELLANIES. 



religion, days without number ; if we have lived a 
vicious life ; we have foolishly contrived to make 
our burden then heaviest, when we are least able 
to stand under it ; we have provided an infinite 
matter for repentance, when there is hardly any 
space left for the exercise of it ; and whatever is 
done in it, will, I fear, be so done, as to signify 
but very little, either to our present comfort, or to 
our future happiness. 

Consider this, O young man, in time : and if 
thou wouldst not have God, f cast thee off in 
thine old age, and forsake thee when thy strength 
fajl, do thou remember him in the days of thy 
youth : for this is the acceptable time, this is the 
day of salvation/ 

Acquaint thyself with him, and remember him 
now ; defer not so necessary a work, no not for a 
moment : begin it just now, that so thou mayest 
have made some good progress in it before the 
* evil days come,' before the ' sun, and the moon, 
and the stars be darkened/ and all the comforts 
and joys of life be fled and gone. Tillotson . 

The Lost Soul. — We are made for the enjoy- 
ment of eternal blessedness ; it is our high calling 



MISCELLANIES. 



299 



unci destination ; and not to pursue it with diligence, 
is to be guilty of the blackest ingratitude to the 
Author of our being, as well as the greatest cruelty 
to ourselves, To fail of such an object, to defeat 
the end of our existence, and in consequence of 
neglecting the great salvation, to sink at last 
under the frown of the Almighty, is a calamity 
which words were not invented to express, nor 
finite minds formed to grasp. Eternity, it is surely 
not necessary to remind you, invests every state, 
whether of bliss or of suffering, with a mvsterious 
and awful importance, entirely its own, and is the 
only property in the creation which gives that 
weight and moment to whatever it attaches, com- 
pared to which, all sublunary joys and sorrows, all 
interests which know a period, fade into the most 
contemptible insignificance. In appreciating every 
other object, it is easy to exceed the proper esti- 
mate ; but what, if it be lawful to indulge such a 
thought, what would be the funeral obsequies of a 
lost soul ? Where shall we find the tears fit to be 
wept at such a spectacle ? or, could we realize the 
calamity in all its extent, what tokens of commis- 
eration and concern would be deemed equal to the 



300 



MISCELLANIES. 



occasion ? Would it suffice for the sun to veil his 
light, and the moon her brightness ? to cover the 
ocean with mourning, and the heavens with sack- 
cloth ? Or, were the whole fabric of nature to 
become animated and vocal, would it be possible 
for her to utter a groan too deep, or a cry too 
piercing, to express the magnitude and extent of 
such a catastrophe ? R. Hall. 

The Mutability of Human Life. — Dark and un- 
certain is the state of being in which we now 
exist. Human life is not formed to answer those 
high expectations, which, in the era of youth and 
imagination, we are apt to entertain. When we 
first set out in life, we bid defiance to the evil day ; 
we indulge in dreams and visions of romantic bliss, 
and fondly lay the scene of perfect and uninter- 
rupted happiness for the time to come. But 
experience soon undeceives us : we awake, and 
find it was but a dream. We make but few steps 
in life without finding the world to be a turbulent 
scene ; we soon experience the changes that 
await us, and feel the thorns of the wilderness 
wherein we dwell. Our hopes are frequently 
blasted in the bud, our designs are defeated in the 



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301 



very moment of expectation, and we meet with 
sorrow, and vexation, and disappointment on all 
hands. There are lives besides our own in which 
we are deeply interested ; lives in which our hap- 
piness is placed, and on which our hopes depend. 
Just when we have laid a plan of happy life ; 
when, after the experience of years, we have found 
out a few chosen friends, and have begun to enjoy 
that little circle in which we would wish to live 
and to die, an unexpected stroke disappoints our 
hopes, and lays all our schemes in the dust. 
When, after much labour and care, we have reared 
the goodly structure : when we have fenced it, as 
we fondly imagine, from every storm that blows, 
and indulge the pleasing hope that it will always 
endure, an invisible hand interposes, and overturns 
it from the foundation. Son of prosperity ! thou 
now lookest forth from thy high tower ; thou now 
gloriest in thine excellence ; thou say est, that thy 
mountain stands strong, and that thou art firm as 
the cedar of Lebanon — but stand in awe. Before 
the mighty God of Jacob, and by the blast of the 
breath of his nostrils, the mountain hath been 
overturned, and the cedar of Lebanon hath fallen 



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MISCELLANIES . 



like the leaf before the tempest. At this very 
moment of time the wheel is in motion that re- 
verses the lot of men, that brings the prosperous 
to the dust, and lays the mighty low. Now, O 
man, thou rejoices t in thy strength ; but know 
that for thee, the bed of languishing, the bed of 
death will be spread. Thou now removest from 
thee the evil day, and say est in thy heart, thou 
shalt never sorrow ; but remember the changes of 
this mortal life. The calmest and the stillest 
hour precedes the whirlwind and the earthquake ; 
the monarch hath drawn the chariot of state in 
which he was wont to ride in triumph ; and the 
greatest who ever awed the world have moralized 
at the turn of the wheel. Logan. 

The infamy of Slander. — This delusive itch for " 
slander, too common in all ranks of people, 
whether to gratify a little ungenerous resentment, 
whether oftener out of a principle of levelling, 
from a narrowness and poverty of soul, ever im- 
patient of merit and superiority in others, whether 
from a mean ambition, or the insatiate lust of 
being witty (a talent in which ill nature and malice 
are no ingredients) or lastly, whether from a 



MISCELLANIES. 



303 



natural cruelty of disposition, abstracted from all 
views and considerations of self : to which one, or 
w T hether to all jointly, we are indebted for this 
contagious malady, thus much is certain, from 
whatever seeds it springs, the growth and pro- 
gress of it are as destructive to as they are 
unbecoming a civilized people. To pass a hard 
and ill natured reflection upon an undesigning 
action ; — to invent, or which is equally bad, to 
propagate a vexatious report without colour and 
grounds ; to plunder an innocent man of his 
character and good name, a jewel which, perhaps, 
he has starved himself to purchase, and probably 
would hazard his life to secure ; — to rob him at 
the same time of his happiness and peace of mind, 
perhaps his bread, — the bread, may be, of a vir- 
tuous family ; and all this, as Solomon says of the 
madman who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, 
and saith, Am I not in sport ? all this out of wan- 
tonness, and oftener from worse motives, — the 
whole appears such a complication of badness, as 
requires no words or warmth of fancy to aggra- 
vate. Pride, treachery, envy, hypocrisy, malice, 
cruelty, and self-love, may have been said, in one 



304 



MISCELLANIES. 



shape or other, to have occasioned all the frauds 
and mischiefs that ever happened in the world ; 
but the chances against a coincidence of them all 
in one person are so many, that one would have 
supposed the character of a common slanderer as 
rare and difficult a production in nature as that of 
a great genius, which seldom happens above once 
in an age. Sterne, 



THE END. 



WEYMOUTH: PRINTED BY Be BENSON* 



